"I have not taken this decision lightly. However, it is because of my love and respect for the institution of the Parliament and the Australian people that I have resigned as Speaker," she said. Bronwyn Bishop has resigned as federal Speaker after being caught up in an expenses scandal. Credit:James Brickwood "I look forward to continuing to serve the people of Mackellar as their local member." Mrs Bishop and Peter Slipper are the only two Speakers to be forced to resign in disgrace. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten criticised Mrs Bishop's departure as "overdue" and called on the Prime Minister to accept she had abused the system.

"Unfortunately, Tony Abbott still won't accept that Bronwyn Bishop has done anything wrong," he said. "Mr Abbott has blamed the system, but it was Mrs Bishop's addiction to privilege that was the real culprit." Illustration: Matt Golding The Prime Minister, who in the past described himself as the ideological love child of Mrs Bishop, refused to criticise his "friend and colleague" and praised her decision instead. "Obviously Bronwyn Bishop is a friend of mine; I have a great deal of personal respect for Bronwyn Bishop," he said. "And without wanting to underplay the significance of some of the errors of judgment which she herself has conceded and apologised for, I think she's certainly done the right thing.

"This has obviously been a very difficult day for Bronwyn Bishop … I think we should respect the fact that it's been a very difficult day for her." Mrs Bishop faced further claims that she chartered a private flight worth $6000 to travel to the NSW South Coast for a party fund-raiser and racked up more than $1000 on private limos on the same day she attended a theatre premiere in her home city of Sydney. The claims came after her grovelling apology last week, in which she agreed her decision to charter a helicopter was "ridiculous", despite previously refusing to say sorry for what she described as an "error of judgment". While MPs regularly schedule parliamentary work to coincide with political and personal events, they usually provide a record of what public work they did to justify their expense claim. Mrs Bishop's case was unique in that she repeatedly refused to provide any evidence of official business. The Prime Minister insisted the problem was the system, not the individual user.

"What has become apparent is that the problem is not any particular individual; the problem is the entitlements system more generally," he said. "This will not be a quickie review." Mr Abbott said a wide-ranging review into MPs' entitlements, to be conducted by former finance secretary David Tune and Remuneration Tribunal chair John Conde, would establish a new system. He said voters should be thankful for the root-and-branch review. Loading "I think we should also be grateful that something has been done here that will resolve this vexed question of entitlements, as far is humanly possible once and for all," he said.

The Department of Finance's review into 10 years' worth of Mrs Bishop's travel claims will still go ahead and is due to report back "as soon as possible". Labor says the former Speaker should agree to release the findings of the investigation if she is genuinely sorry.