Bob Hawke famously observed that if you can’t govern yourselves, you can’t govern the country. Allow us to update this wise dictum: if you can’t control your own spending, you can’t control the country’s. Bronwyn Bishop did the right thing by standing aside, not for the self-evident reason that the government was being damaged by the daily headlines, but for the simple reason that the voters must have absolute faith that politicians are putting the national interest ahead of their own.