Mitt Romney speaking to a $50,000-a-plate Republican fundraiser says he doesn't have to worry about the 47 per cent of Americans who don't pay tax. He was not counting on the smart phone recording his speech and then posting it on YouTube.

Broadcasters or politicians or writers who think that they are respecting Struggle Street, the battlers, by dumbing things down into one-line sound bites are not respecting them, they are treating them with contempt. It's our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them.

Those who condemn gay marriage, yet are silent or indifferent to the breakdown of marriage and divorce, are, in my view, missing the real issue.

The royal commissions are successful and effective when they have a focused terms of reference and can do the job quickly and report. And then action can be taken.

Government will not nominate the former Labor prime minister [Kevin Rudd] to be the UN's next secretary-general.

I have always been generous because I know that I have done well in life and I believe it is part of my duty to give back. So I am always been philanthropic.

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?