They might be a good friend, but they are also a bitter commercial rival. Let's not kid ourselves.. The American wheat industry has done everything it possibly can to criticize the Australian wheat industry in order to take the Iraqi wheat market from us.

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.

There is much in American society which I admire, but I have long held the view that the absence of an effective safety net in that country means that too many needy citizens fall by the wayside. That is not the path that Australia will tread. Nor do we want the burdens of nanny state paternalism that now weigh down many economies in Europe.

People who say they're too busy to have lunch have a false impression of their own importance.

If I am wrong and you are right then the democratic process of the Australian community will vindicate you and condemn me.

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.

I think when people talk about civil liberties, they sometimes forget that action taken to protect the citizen against physical violence and physical attack is a blow in favour and not a blow against civil liberties.