There is a very special place in the Australian psyche for sport. It is one of the pillars of the Australian way of life. You don't really understand what makes the Australian nation tick unless you understand the great affection Australians have for sport.

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

For so long as we condone injustice by a small but powerful group, we condone the destruction of all social stability, all real peace, all trust in man's good intentions toward his fellow man.

Young people are at risk of being disinherited from their community if that community lacks the courage and confidence to teach its history.

This is appalling. The idea that a person could be punished because of their religious belief and the idea they might be executed is just beyond belief.

I'm not running away from the fact that I had previously said I did not contemplate a major increase, and that was a fair statement of the Government's state of mind at the time I made that.

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.