8 much better ways to spend Bronwyn Bishop's travel money.

She may have agreed to pay back the $5000 for the chopper, but what about the rest?

Today, we found out that Bronwyn Bishop spent $300,000 on overseas travel in her first year as Speaker of the House. Three hundred thousand dollars is a lot of money by any measure, especially for someone whose role exclusively involves duties in Australia.

So we had a quick look at what Bronwyn Bishop’s overseas junkets could have bought if that money was spent more wisely:

1. Thirty eight women in crisis could receive emergency housing, nutritious meals and professional support.

2. 58,365 boxes of 20 tampons for homeless women in Australia (that’s over a million tampons).

3. Five hundred fistula operations for women at the Hamlin Fistula Hospital in Ethiopia.

4. Three indigenous healthcare workers in remote communities, to reduce the appalling levels of maternal mortality among Aboriginal women in this country.

5. Ten fully trained guide dogs.

6. Five full-time staff for a suicide prevention hotline.

7. 44,247 mosquito nets to help protect some of the 3.2 billion people worldwide who are at risk from malaria.

8. 1,111,111 doses of the whooping cough vaccine to stop the spread of this deadly disease in Australia.

Where would you prefer your taxpayer money went?