The statistics speak volumes about Speaker Bronwyn Bishop's management of the debating chamber, with 319 Labour MPs ejected under her rule, compared to only five Coalition MPs. Credit:Alex Ellinghausen While judges remove themselves to avoid even the appearance of bias in even minor cases, Bishop seems to revel in flaunting hers in the most important institution in the country. After taking the job, she said: "I mean to be impartial". Yet it is well known that she boots out Labor MPs at a rate far higher than Coalition MPs - 63 times higher, in fact. Since she took the chair, the count is 319 to 5, according to Herald journalist Stephanie Peatling. There may be some logical explanation for that startling figure. Oppositions do tend to be rowdier than governments. But Bishop goes further - she even answers opposition questions before her nominated team member gets to try.

Last Tuesday, Labor's Tanya Plibersek asked Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop a question about the previous night's Four Corners program. The Bishop in the chair declared that Bishop the minister was "not responsible for the Four Corners program". On Thursday, Chris Bowen asked the Treasurer if he agreed with the description by the Prime Minister, whom he called Captain Chaos, that a debt-to-GDP ratio of 50 or 60 per cent was "a pretty good result". "I do not know that it really is much of a question," she said, effectively dismissing a legitimate query on whether government debt equal to half the entire nation's annual income was a good thing. She found it out of order but said Joe Hockey could answer it if he chose. He didn't. Labor's Tony Burke objected: "It is a brand new precedent if answering questions is now optional for ministers". She sat him down. About the only time she admonishes her own side, of which she remains an enthusiastic part, is when ministers use props or first names.

Others have suggested her performance may appear so poor because she follows three speakers who did a much better job of impartiality than in the past - Harry Jenkins, Anna Burke and, for all his faults, Peter Slipper. She's far from the only biased speaker in 114 years. Labor's Leo McLeay faced five motions of no-confidence while deputy, acting and Speaker proper during the Keating government. John Hewson told the house in 1992: "I have never seen in living memory the extent of the blatant bias and manipulation of Parliament to the advantage of this government." However, Bishop as Speaker should be judged not by others who may have been as bad, or worse, but by the ideal, like the example set by the first Commonwealth Speaker, former South Australian premier Frederick Holder. He was so determined to be impartial that he quit his party and sought re-election as an independent. He died of a brain haemorrhage after a particularly rowdy overnight parliamentary session. Of Holder, then prime minister Alfred Deakin said: "Inspired by a lofty conception of the duties of his office, he presided over the House of Representatives with conspicuous ability, firmness, and impartiality".

Quite so, as long as "lofty conception" was Deakin-speak for: a requirement of all occupants of the job. The Speaker under Malcolm Fraser, Billy Snedden, proved it was possible for even former Liberal leaders to do the job well. He tried to have the British impartiality conventions adopted here. Once appointed, the Speaker would become independent and at subsequent elections stand unopposed by the major parties to ensure a return. After a term of five-to-seven years, the speaker would quit the job and Parliament. That sensible proposal wasn't adopted, but Snedden resigned anyway after the 1983 election of the Hawke government. Not only is Bishop's speakership not one of any objective impartiality, but she attends party room meetings - entirely political forums for deciding policy and leadership.

She had designs on leadership herself during the Liberals' turbulent 1980s. As John Howard notes in his autobiography, she had some measure of appeal to conservative voters. "Quite assiduously, she cultivated comparisons between herself and Margaret Thatcher." And for an image of everything wrong with Bishop in the speaker's chair of the House of Representatives, just imagine Thatcher sitting in it. Tim Dick is a Sydney lawyer. Twitter: @dick_tim