Former Speaker Bronwyn Bishop would retire on a taxpayer-funded pension of $255,000 plus 10 free domestic return flights a year if she were to take the Prime Minister's hint and quit Parliament at the next election.
Tony Abbott all but declared the former Speaker's political career over on Tuesday.
But cabinet minister Christopher Pyne, who worked closely with Mrs Bishop in his capacity as leader of the house, said he hoped she prevailed at the ballot box if she recontested.
Mrs Bishop's office told Fairfax Media on Tuesday that the member for Mackellar intended to renominate for her seat at the next poll, scheduled for 2016.
By next year, her parliamentary career, which began in the Senate, will have stretched for 29 years, meaning she stands to take home a retirement package worth about $255,000 a year.
This is calculated on the basis that Mrs Bishop, 72, has served more than 18 years in Parliament and is entitled to 75 per cent of the parliamentary base salary, worth $115,000 a year.
But as a former minister and Speaker, she would be paid generous top-ups capped at 75 per cent of the highest paying office held.
Having served more than 20 years in Parliament, Mrs Bishop also qualifies for the Life Gold Pass scheme, which entitles her to 10 domestic return trips a year.
Mr Abbott said on Wednesday he wanted an entirely new entitlements system "within months", despite saying earlier that he did not want his root and branch review into the current scheme to be a "quickie".
He also declined to criticise Labor frontbencher Tony Burke who is refusing to say why he chose to fly his family to join him at Uluru business class, instead of economy in 2012.
"Plainly, some people in the past have made spending decisions, have made travel decisions, which may well have been inside the rules but were plainly outside public expectation," he said.
"I'm focused on trying to ensure that within a few months we have a new system – a new system that engenders public confidence that members of Parliament are doing what they need to do but they're doing it in a reasonable, prudent and, wherever possible, frugal way," he said.
