Choppergate

AUSTRALIA’S Parliament is about to reconvene with a prominent officeholder gone. On August 2nd the speaker of the lower house, Bronwyn Bishop, resigned over revelations that she had spent taxpayers’ money on helicopters, aircraft and limousines. “Choppergate” has roiled the conservative government and raised fresh questions about the judgment of Tony Abbott, the prime minister.

Mr Abbott nominated Mrs Bishop for the speaker’s job after he led the Liberal-National coalition to power in 2013. The two represent neighbouring constituencies in Sydney’s rich northern suburbs and were allies from his Liberal Party’s right wing. Mr Abbott once called himself the “ideological love-child” of Bronwyn Bishop and John Howard, a longserving former prime minister and perhaps Mr Abbott’s most ardent champion.

Mrs Bishop has generated controversy since she entered parliament 28 years ago, grilling senior civil servants with unusual bellicosity over government spending. In 2013 the prime minister argued she would bring “dignity” to the post of speaker. Yet in the job Mrs Bishop played the partisan warrior. Ignoring the speaker’s supposed independence, she attended meetings of Liberal parliamentarians. Of her 400 ejections of members from the chamber during parliamentary debates, 393 were of opposition Labor Party politicians.

The travel row erupted with reports on July 15th that Mrs Bishop had spent A$5,227 ($3,800) last November chartering a helicopter to fly from Melbourne to Geelong, two cities little more than an hour’s car ride apart; she was attending not parliamentary business but a party fund-raising event. At first Mrs Bishop agreed to repay the money but not to apologise. The outcry, she complained, had “taken the heat off” Bill Shorten, the Labor leader.

A stream of disclosures followed about Mrs Bishop charging taxpayers thousands of dollars for travel to weddings of Liberal colleagues, cultural events and a visit to Europe. Before the Abbott government’s first, cost-cutting budget last year the Treasurer, Joe Hockey, lectured Australians about thrift. “The age of entitlement is over,” he declared, while “the age of personal responsibility has begun.”

Ordinary Australians have little truck with hypocrisy. But, five days into the storm, Mr Abbott said merely that Mrs Bishop was “on probation”. That was mild rebuke. As opposition leader in 2012 he had demanded that the speaker, Peter Slipper, resign for abusing A$954-worth of taxi charges. Mr Slipper did indeed promptly step down. He was later convicted of dishonesty, but appealed and won.

Mr Abbott allowed Choppergate to drag on for almost three weeks before Mrs Bishop finally apologised to Australians for “letting them down”. By then, even the government’s strongest supporter, Rupert Murdoch’s media empire, was demanding that she go. Indeed on August 1st the Daily Telegraph, a Sydney tabloid owned by Mr Murdoch, published fresh claims that Mrs Bishop had spent A$6,000 to charter an aircraft to another Liberal event.

The next day Mrs Bishop resigned. Yet the prime minister still seemed intent on shielding her from blame. The problem, he told the press, was “not any particular individual,” but rather “the entitlements system more generally.” Mr Shorten ascribed the problem to “Mrs Bishop’s addiction to privilege”. Yet the Murdoch papers revealed on August 5th that Tony Burke, a fierce Labor critic of Mrs Bishop, himself had claimed almost A$13,000 for a visit to central Australia in his capacity as a minister in the former Labor government, taking his family along. Mr Burke claimed he had travelled “in accordance with the rules”. Politicians from all parties support a review of politicians’ entitlements ordered by Mr Abbott.

Whoever succeeds Mrs Bishop, Mr Abbott’s allowing personal loyalty to Mrs Bishop to override public outrage will focus attention on his management of government. In private senior ministers fume at the damage from Choppergate. Early this year, Mr Abbott survived a bid by some Liberal parliamentarians to open the party’s leadership to a ballot. The government faces crucial decisions, especially on economic reform, before an election due in 13 months. Mr Abbott has little room for more mistakes.