Tony Abbott once described himself as the ideological love child of prime ministerial predecessor John Howard and his Government's grand old dame, Bronwyn Bishop.
It was a line that made people squirm. Bishop - a theatre lover currently playing the pantomime villain in Australia's "Choppergate" scandal - said the birth was a result of immaculate conception.
Behind her shiny exterior is a sharp wit and steely demeanour that used to prompt comparisons to Margaret Thatcher. And when it comes to extravagant and indefensible largesse on the taxpayer's tab, a defiant Bishop has made it abundantly clear she is not for turning.
After running up annual expenses just shy of a million dollars, Australia's parliamentary Speaker says she can't see what all the fuss is about.
So yesterday morning it was left to Abbott, with near-universal calls for action ringing in his ears, to relieve Bishop of her weighty civic duties.
