In farewelling Bronwyn Bishop from the Speaker’s chair yesterday, Prime Minister Tony Abbott called her a “warrior” for the causes in which she believed. He said she had served the Parliament, the nation and the Liberal Party with dedication and distinction. Considering Mrs Bishop had resigned in disgrace, that was quite a tribute.

More gratuitous praise came from Education Minister Christopher Pyne, who claimed Mrs Bishop had been “felled in most unfair circumstances”. That much was patently untrue.

Mrs Bishop resigned the Speaker’s position nine days ago, of her own accord, after her position became untenable. Her extravagant expenditure on the taxpayers’ account had thoroughly embarrassed the Abbott government and her resignation was more than warranted. It should have come long ago.

We say as much because, putting aside her abuse of taxpayer-funded expenses, Mrs Bishop was arguably the most partisan adjudicator of the House of Representatives in generations. It was not so much her extraordinary enthusiasm for ejecting opposition MPs that warranted concern, for much of the opposition’s behaviour is deliberately and flamboyantly provocative.

In our view, by failing to fairly and rigorously police the parliamentary debate, Mrs Bishop let down the people of Australia. She was most certainly a warrior for the Liberal Party, not for the proper and fair management of the processes of Parliament.

What we, the people, are entitled to expect from the Speaker is someone who will fearlessly protect and preserve the independence of Parliament from overreach by the executive arm of government, and someone who respects the integrity of the debate process even if it works against their own party.

Governments must be held to account and, to that end, they must be required to answer the questions that are asked of them in Parliament, not to engage in negative rants or drift into fatuous and irrelevant propaganda. Unfortunately, that kind of conduct flourished under Mrs Bishop’s tenure. She must take some blame for the cynicism that flourishes among voters.

The Age welcomes Victorian Liberal MP Tony Smith to the role of Speaker, and we welcome his vow that, unlike his predecessor, he will not attend Coalition party room meetings. He says the Speaker “should not only be, but be seen to be, independent of the partisan day-to-day fray”.

We urge him to exhibit that same impartiality in the Parliament. Voters are entitled to expect the Speaker will abide by the highest standards of Speakers elsewhere in the world, that he will pursue fairness in managing the debate within the House. We urge him to be open to all sides, and to ensure that answers are strictly relevant.

We agree with Mr Smith’s view that debate should be robust. Strength of debate, whether conducted within the parliamentary process or outside, comes from facts and logic, not from unproductive haranguing, finger pointing and nit-picking.

From the government’s perspective, there is a real risk that a