BRONWYN Bishop took a taxpayer-funded car to travel just 850m to a meeting in Tasmania instead of taking a free shuttle bus.

The federal parliamentary Speaker has been engulfed in controversy since it was revealed last week that she’d chartered a helicopter for a ­return trip from Melbourne to Geelong.

Ms Bishop attended an ­annual regional conference of presiding officers and clerks in Tasmania earlier this month.

Sources told the Herald Sun Ms Bishop snubbed the free shuttle bus provided to take delegates from the hotel to Parliament House. Instead, she used a chauffer-driven Commonwealth vehicle.

BRONWYN BISHOP’S CASABLANCA TRIP ON MOROCCO

Costs of the taxpayer-funded trips will not be made public until the next half-yearly statement of expenses.

A spokesman for the Speaker denied she was “dodging” the shuttle bus and said it did not depart at convenient times.

“We didn’t always leave at the same time the bus was going,” he said.

“There was a large proportion of that meeting which we weren’t involved in.”

He said Ms Bishop travelled between the hotel, the conference and Hobart’s Commonwealth offices in the vehicle because she “had work to do”.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott put Ms Bishop on “probation” this week after ordering her to repay more than $6000 over her helicopter charter flight to a Liberal fundraiser.

Claims have also emerged that Ms Bishop took a taxpayer-funded helicopter trip to a dog show shortly after entering politics in the 1980s.

In a 1994 biography, David Leser quoted her staffer, Ellis Glover, claiming Ms Bishop charged the taxpayer for a helicopter flight to travel from a local fete to a dog show.

Ms Bishop’s spokesman has denied the decades-old claim.

“I can tell you she’s not ­really a dog person,” he said.