Bronwyn Bishop: ‘I was asked to resign to protect Tony Abbott’

BRONWYN Bishop has said goodbye to her political career, but not without a parting shot at Tony Abbott and a promise of more details to come.

Farewell: Bronwyn Bishop is congratulated by Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull after delivering her last speech to parliament. Picture Kym Smith

“I WAS asked to resign to protect Tony Abbott.”

With that parting barb, former House of Representatives speaker Bronwyn Bishop has bid goodbye to her political career.

Bishop, 73, used her valedictory speech to parliament late today to fire off the parting shot at the former PM, with a pointed reference to the expenses scandal which claimed her career as speaker,

She said her “moving” time as speaker came to end when she resigned to protect the man she’d “assisted, worked with and respected for many years”.

“There is more to that saga than meets the eye ... but that’s not for now,” she said.

Mrs Bishop resigned as speaker in August last year after the discovery she billed taxpayers $5000 for a short helicopter charter flight between Melbourne and Geelong.

The expenses scandal, known as “Choppergate’ stretched on for weeks before she resigned.

Friend became foe: Then-Prime Minister Tony Abbott kisses Bronwyn Bishop after she was elected speaker. Last year, he asked her to resign.

Bishop’s valedictory speech revelation came towards the end of an often humorous recount of her political career, and touched only briefly on Choppergate.

She said becoming speaker of the house was “a very proud moment ... there was an expense problem or two ... but nonetheless it was wonderful opportunity.”

The first woman from any political party to the NSW Senate, Bishop reflected “it only took 86 years”.

She said the dirtiest fight she’d ever had in politics was to be become president of the Liberal party — but she got there as well.

She elicited laughter from the audience sharing a memory of John Button, a regular sparring partner, who had once sent her a card form China saying: “Attended a public hanging. Thought of you.”

Former PM Paul Keating had once described her as a Catherine wheel, she said.

“One does make mistakes in this place and in life”: Bronwyn Bishop delivering her valedictory speech. Picture: Kym Smith

In return, she described him as: “A sparkler: Burns bright but reduces down to a thin black stick”.

She reminded her Liberal party colleagues they had once thought she would make a good Prime Minister, and admitted it was a mistake not to challenge for the leadership when Alexander Downer was elected.

“A mistake. However, one does make mistakes in this place and in life,” she said.

Among the more sobering parts of her speech was her memory of the 1996 Black Hawk disaster. The death of 18 servicemen would “remain with her forever” and gave her great sadness, she said.

Happier moments from her times as Minister for Defence Industry, Science and Personnel came with the opportunity to break the sound barrier and do barrel roles in an F-111 aircraft, she said, adding that the only stipulation from pilots was “no pins, no hairspray”, and that she was “just determined not to throw up’”

Ms Bishop’s political career spanned just short of three decades, and has ended after she lost a preselection ballot in her Sydney seat of Mackellar in April.

Originally published as Bronwyn Bishop: ‘I was asked to resign to protect Tony Abbott’