"She has been a strong Speaker...she has been a strong servant of our country, she has been a good servant of the Coalition and so she does have my confidence but like everyone who has done something like this, inevitably, for a period of time, they are on probation."

Tony Abbott says fiddling with negative gearing in the past destroyed rental markets, but he's wrong. Credit:Andrew Meares

While Mrs Bishop has paid back the money for the flight - plus a $1300 penalty - she has not apologised for the matter.

However, Mr Abbott said he believed Mrs Bishop was "contrite" and "apologetic" over "this serious lapse of judgment", and she will "learn a very salutary lesson".

"Bronwyn is, I think, very, very contrite about this. I've had a couple of long conversations with her about it," Mr Abbott said. "And I think all of us can learn this lesson, but my priority today is to get on with providing the best possible government for our country."