Also unfortunate is Bishop's decision to continue to attend Liberal party room meetings - it being notable that Anna Burke stopped attending Labor caucus after her appointment.
The office as it exists in Australia is a far cry from Britain, where a Speaker relinquishes ties to his or her party, does not sit as a member of his or her caucus, and is expected to be completely neutral in his or her treatment of MPs. One way for our Speaker to become truly independent - and thus more likely to get ministers to answer questions - would be to require a two-thirds majority of Parliament to elect or to dismiss a Speaker.
http://www.canberratimes.com.au/comment/speaker-of-the-house-should-not-be-a-partys-political-pawn-20131121-2xyjc.html
Bishop's partisanship has been so blatant that a petition is currently circulating calling for her removal - unfortunately, it's couched in very unparliamentary terms (referring to her "toadying sycophancy" for example), and it will never get any traction. But if somebody were to put up a petition couched in parliamentary terminology, with clear references to her constitutional responsibilities, I'd sign it, and I'm sure many others would also. It's in our interests, because she is instrumental in denying Labor and the Greens an effective voice in the parliament.
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