For a parliament full of talented people with the job of leading Australian policy in a range of important areas it is crazy to think that community discussion for 4 weeks has been dominated by concerns about inappropriate MP entitlements and helicopter rides. But then again, who knew that MPs were allowed to take their family members on tax payer funded business class travel in Australia.
Many of the new Liberal Party MPs who entered Parliament in 2013 are shaking their heads just as strongly as a large number of Australian voters.
There will be much talk about this issue in Parliament this week.
At 9am 73 Liberal Party members of the House of Representatives are set to vote for the new speaker and after that meeting, Bronwyn Bishop will formally resign and go to the back bench.
Tony Smith, and Russell Broadbent from Victoria and Andrew Southcott from South Australia are considered the front runners.
Whoever wins, the job ahead will be challenging. Respect and discipline needs to be restored in the House of Representatives and the parliament needs to win back the respect of the people of Australia.
Newspaper coverage of the expenses scandals has reached fever pitch and now on a daily basis stories are appearing about Ministers and Shadow Ministers travel with family members using business class tickets.
The Government has suffered in the latest opinion polls but overall it is politicians in general (on both sides of the House) who have looked bad in the eyes of the public.
As the Prime Minister has said "the rules have allowed things that shouldn't have been allowed."
For many voters told in Budgets 2014 and 2015 to tighten their belts and that the age of entitlement is over, the message from the Government is hard to take.
