We are already experiencing the symptoms of climate change, especially with a hotter and drier climate in southern Australia - the rush to construct desalination plants is an expensive testament to that.

There is a tendency to try to dumb everything down and turn everything into a one-paragraph press release or even less, just a slogan.

Many Liberals are rightly dismayed that on this vital issue of climate change we are not simply without a policy, without any prospect of having a credible policy but we are now without integrity. We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted.

We will certainly have to rethink the way in which we design and protect places where large numbers of Australians and indeed this will happen around the world.

Nobody looks at opinion polls with more attention than politicians, but of course you've got to remember that a single poll is a snapshot in time.

When politicians offer you something for nothing, or something that sounds too good to be true, it's always worth taking a careful second look.

Are not the gays who seek the right to marry, to formalise their commitment to each other, holding up a mirror to heterosexuals who are marrying less frequently and divorcing more often?