The most important civil liberty... is to stay alive and to be free from violence and death.

The 'black armband' view of our history reflects a belief that most Australian history since 1788 has been little more than a disgraceful story of imperialism, exploitation, racism, sexism and other forms of discrimination. I take a very different view. I believe that the balance sheet of our history is one of heroic achievement and that we have achieved much more as a nation of which we can be proud of than which we should be ashamed.

It's too much to expect in an academic setting that we should all agree, but it is not too much to expect discipline and unvarying civility.

I don't think it is wrong, racist, immoral or anything, for a country to say 'we will decide what the cultural identity and the cultural destiny of this country will be and nobody else'.

Of all the important relationships that Australia has with other countries, none has been more greatly transformed over the last 10 years than our relationship with China.

Nobody should underestimate how much the world changed on the 11th of September 2001.

Nobody should claim that the war [in Iraq] is over. But certainly it can be said that the regime is finished.