Forget about an independent chair. And forget about a system of accountability where the executive arm is subject to the scrutiny of the legislative arm. These were rarely delivered anyway, and right now, they are not even worth pretending about.

By putting Bronwyn Bishop "on probation", after her taxpayer-funded helicopter fantasy, Tony Abbott has all but co-opted her to the executive, cynically extinguishing what remained of the Speaker's putative neutrality in umpiring the most contested terrain on the political landscape.

Leaving aside her past performance in the chair, the PM's "P" plate declaration makes her no different from any minister in his team. The terms of Bishop's engagement are identical to theirs: if she displeases him, she's gone. No other criteria are relevant. This is hardly the institutional arrangement one would choose if genuine independence were of any import.