The arts are part of a nation's identity, they are part of a nation's soul and when we look at a country from the eyes of people overseas they are part of a nations branding in the world as it were.

I think the cultural programming on the ABC is one of the glories of the ABC.

The political bug first bit me was Malcolm Fraser's resignation from the Gorton Government.

One of the senior Labor frontbenchers from Queensland, Terri Butler, said that she was against the Adani mine. So that is the clearest statement we've had from a person who would be a member of a Shorten government, that if there were to be a Shorten government as far as she's concerned, the Adani mine wouldn't go ahead. People in Rockhampton know that and they're very worried about it.

There could be constitutional problems with executive detention if it is seen to be arbitrary. I didn't actually say that the NSW Government's proposed anti-terrorism bill was necessarily unconstitutional - that was sloppy journalism - I said that executive detention may raise constitutional problems if it is seen to be arbitrary as being an invasion of the judicial function.

This is an issue that the Prime Minister put on the COAG agenda. First of all, it is something that would only apply in an extreme case where the service by a terrorist of a sentence of imprisonment had in no way curbed their desire or their intention to commit terrorist offences in the community, so that this is a - would be a public safety measure. The second point I'd make to you is that this is not unknown to the law.

I was interested in politics since the age of 14.