Give me a break, Bronwyn Bishop says

Bronwyn Bishop has repaid nearly $14,000 in expenses since being busted for "Choppergate" including trips for colleagues' weddings.

Former speaker Bronwyn Bishop

Former federal Speaker Bronwyn Bishop has repaid taxpayers nearly $14,000 in travel expenses. (AAP)

Bronwyn Bishop has delivered a fiery retort to claims she's repaid taxpayers nearly $14,000 in travel expenses since the former federal Speaker's infamous chopper ride, insisting she wasn't being greedy.

Ms Bishop charged the public purse for costs relating to 11 trips, including colleagues' weddings and media mogul Kerry Packer's funeral, according to a Department of Finance probe.

The report, obtained and published online by the Herald Sun, says Ms Bishop repaid $6768.25 for the trips.

That money is on top of $7200 she repaid for claiming the November 2014 helicopter trip from Melbourne to Geelong.

The helicopter charter cost $5750 and she was hit with a 25 per cent penalty.

The scandal forced Ms Bishop to resign as Speaker in August 2015 and her bid for preselection in last year's federal election was unsuccessful.

An investigation into a decade of past claims followed.

"Give me a break," the former MP told Sky News on Wednesday night when asked about the report.

"We're talking about a helicopter ride plus some small expenses I repaid, plus 25 per cent.

"None of any of that had anything to do with my 'greed' or my 'pleasure'."

Ms Bishop insisted she did nothing wrong and stressed that scrutiny should be focused on Victoria's former speaker and deputy speaker who resigned following expense scandals, and federal senators such as Sam Dastyari and Richard Di Natale.

"Look at those others - it was all for their benefit or gain or greed," she said.

"What I was doing was my job."

Ms Bishop said she engaged her own lawyers who found that none of her travel claims were inconsistent with the rules.

She made the repayments because of the costs.

"It was expensive, that's why I paid it back."

The department compiled tables for each financial year and sent them to Ms Bishop to review.

If an entitlement was identified as clearly or technically within the rules, it was up to Ms Bishop to decide if the claim was within "community expectations", according to the report.

Ms Bishop only returned checked entitlement-use tables to the department for the 2005/06, 2006/07 and 2013/14 financial years.


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Source: AAP



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