GILMORE MP Ann Sudmalis has drawn a line in the sand. She doesn’t want to talk about former speaker Bronwyn Bishop anymore.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
“She’s resigned. I don’t want to fuel the fire,” Mrs Sudmalis said.
On July 19, in the midst of the scandal over a $5227 helicopter flight from Melbourne to Geelong, it was revealed Mrs Bishop had also flown to Nowra to attend two seniors’ forums in Nowra and Kiama in November last year, as well as to undertake some fundraising with Mrs Sudmalis.
It was reported over the weekend that 160km journey from Sydney cost the taxpayer $6000 for a luxury corporate aircraft.
A Commonwealth car also met the speaker at Kiama.
Mrs Sudmalis had previously said, “From memory I think she came into [HMAS] Albatross, then I think she got a Com [Commonwealth] car from Kiama, so not to have a Com car waiting around all day.”
At the weekend, before the speaker resigned Mrs Sudmalis said the latest furore over the trip to Berry was petty, and there were greater issues people should worry about.
“She made an error of judgment, she admitted that. She repaid the money,” Mrs Sudmalis said.
“It’s finished.”
She said she didn’t think her support for the former speaker would affect her chances of being re-elected at the next election.
“[The forums] was an open opportunity for all seniors to come and talk to Bronwyn,” she said.
“Her travel had nothing to do with me. I never organised or planned her travel.
“I don’t want to talk about this issue any more.
“I gave everyone a fair run last week. I have been honest the whole way through.
“I think her treatment has been unfair – she was a good woman for almost her entire political career.”
Earlier on ABC Illawarra, Mrs Sudmalis said she was “shocked” by the resignation.
“She is an amazing woman in our parliament,” she said.
“I have only known Bronwyn a short while but at all times she has been a woman of elegance and a woman who has put everything of herself into bettering the lives of Australians.
“She is caring and inspiring to women to get into politics.”
Mrs Sudmalis said the media had wrongly reported she had only come to the area for fundraisers.
“The media is partly responsible for this,” she said.
“She didn’t just come for a fundraiser. I had two very well publicised and surveyed for and determined seniors’ forums.
“In and around that we had fundraisers but the main purpose for her coming was to have seniors’ forums.”
She said it was appalling the way it had been portrayed in the media.
“The media keep saying it was for a fundraiser – that was not the reason, which I have stated so many times,” she said.
Mrs Sudmalis even told one journalist unless they were willing to give both sides of the story she would not talk to them.
“The main purpose of the two forums was to talk to people in the area about the role of the speaker; how things are rolling out in the parliament; and to answer any questions they might have,” she said.
She did note in the interview that Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce had also recently flown to the area “simply to turn the sod of a new milk factory [in Berry] and that was brilliant”.