Finite

I wonder if Bronwyn Bishop is surprised that she failed to secure pre-selection for her seat of Mackellar, on Sydney’s blue ribbon Northern Beaches. Scuttlebutt is that Tony Abbott was utterly blindsided by his loss to Malcolm Turnbull in last September’s leadership spill. Was Ms Bishop any better prepared for brutal reality?

Niki Savva’s book Road to Ruin - Road To Ruin - How Tony Abbott and Peta Credlin Destroyed Their Own Government, catalogues several warnings in the days leading up to the leadership spill, and yet Abbott seemed oblivious. Some would say he is still oblivious, somehow assured that in time, his former backers will understand their error and reinstate him as Prime Minister.

Ms Savva’s book also explores the blustering stupidity with which the Prime Minister’s office handled Choppergate, and its role in the lead up to the September spill. It was just another debacle in a year which started with the Prince Sir Philip fiasco, but it held the attention on the media and the public for weeks longer than it should have. Ms Bishop’s instinct had been to offer a mea culpa within days of the scandal hitting the papers. She was instructed by the Prime Minister’s office not to apologise.

Nothing will pardon the former Speaker of her lavish tax-payer-funded lifestyle, although on a national scale, that’s a far less grievous crime than the way she behaved as Speaker of the House. She won’t admit that, of course. Ms Bishop’s instincts regarding the electorate had always been better than her political choices, how is she feeling now, the day after her political career was ripped from her?

 Is she cataloguing the usual roster of excuses: generational change, tarred by her association with a disgraced former acolyte and his abrasive Chief of Staff, a combination of sexism and ageism conspiring against her, simply time to retire?

As I watched her preside over the House for almost 2 years, demanding silence on her left and inviting Labor Members to leave the chamber under 94A, were there also quiet moments in the darkness when she admitted, if only to herself, that her behaviour as Speaker was entirely without honour?

And now, when it appears to be all over, does she expect a farewell party, a gold watch from her former colleagues in the Liberal Party? Her single, untarnished claim to fame is that she survived in Federal Parliament longer than any other woman because she didn’t know when to retire.

Today, Liberal MP Darren Chester tweeted “Bronnie blazed trail for other women in politics: she has been a warrior for her cause: I wish her well ‪@rharris334”

It was a generous assessment by Mr Chester. Ms Bishop blazed no trails. She was not the first woman to serve in the Australian parliament, or the first female Senator or the first female member of the House of Representatives. She wasn’t the first female Minister or even the first female Speaker. She just couldn’t see when her expiry date was passed.

In isolation, her CV should look spectacular, yet the two words most strongly associated with Ms Bishop are probably helicopter and kerosene. Her first act as Shadow Health Minister was to support the tobacco industry; her tenure in the shadow health portfolio was short.

Today, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has paid tribute to Ms Bishop, using words that could just as easily describe an ocean liner, and probably should.

"She's been a magnificent figure on the national stage as a minister, as a member, senator, speaker. Bronwyn is unforgettable; she's dynamic, she's colourful, she's charismatic and we thank her, on behalf of the Liberal Party, we thank her for her extraordinary service."

The former Prime Minister, another to be unceremoniously dumped, described his political mentor as a “warrior for good causes.”

I’m pleased to see her gone, but can’t quite bring myself to do a happy dance at her demise. She will suffer this defeat, although I suspect she may be feeling some measure of relief that she can stop being that warrior, that magnificent ocean-going vessel, and just sit down in her satin pjs and watch the soaps.

For now, the former Minister for Aged Care in the Howard Government will have to fund her own helicopter jaunts from her meagre parliamentary pension of just…wait for it…$9,614 per fortnight. That’s more than ten times what an aged pensioner gets, and one helluva reward for a career marked by prodigious ambition and humiliating failures.