Abbott "defending the indefensible" with Bishop - Lieberal John Hewson

Lieberal John Hewson has entered the fray on Bronwyn Bishop's choppergate rort of taxpayers. From the tone of the article it appears he's positively flabbergasted that Abbott is supporting Bishop in this. This at a time when Abbott's $80million royal commission was doing it's best to string opposition leader Shorten up by his balls. 

It not only indefensible factually, but politically. Abbott as PM appears to have political feet of clay. How could he even suggest to Australia that she was "doing a good job" let alone say it? Even SSJoe is knifing her over it. Talk about the bloody Titanic.

Mr Abbott stood by Mrs Bishop on Friday after she paid back more than $5000 in public money to take a helicopter from Melbourne to Geelong to attend a Liberal Party fundraiser. Mr Abbott said Mrs Bishop was doing a good job and that he still had confidence in her. 

But Mr Hewson said he was "staggered" by Mr Abbott's decision to support Mrs Bishop. "He's got to nip it in the bud, it's just going to run hard against him," he told Sky News. 

"The fact that she's just obfuscating rather than addressing the substance of the issue, as is he, is unsustainable." 

The Coalition's support for Mrs Bishop, who also spent $90,000 on a trip to Europe, including $1000 a day on limousines, was inconsistent with its calls for former Speaker Peter Slipper to resign over allegations he misused $900 in taxi vouchers. Mrs Bishop's trip was partly aimed at securing her a job with the International Parliamentary Union, based in Switzerland. 

Mr Hewson was "staggered" at Mr Abbott's decision, during a week when he had a chance to score political points against Labor, following Opposition Leader Bill Shorten's appearance at the Royal Commission into Trade Unions, and ahead of Labor's national conference. "You're spending all your time defending the indefensible," he said. 

"I just think it's pretty bad short-term politics and it'll end in tears for a lot of people." 

Mrs Bishop's "only hope" to keep her job as Speaker was if she gave "a complete and honest and open account" of what happened and why, and to openly admit where she had tried to claim entitlements for the wrong purpose. This would give Mr Abbott an opportunity to deal with the scandal differently, he said. 

"I suspect it's too late for that, I suspect they've put the barricades up and they're going to fight this at enormous political cost," Mr Hewson said. Read more