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.

Greece is an extreme case: a country where both the level of spending and the level of taxation were unsustainable!

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

We learn from every natural disaster. Whether it's a fire or a flood, we learn something from it so we can respond to the next one better.

People learn from failure or from lack of success.

In terms of our region, what we need to ensure is that the rise of China [is] conducted in a manner that does not disturb the security and the relative harmony of the region upon which China's prosperity depends. Now - now, that requires careful diplomacy, it requires balancing.

I think Australians are more interested in what I am doing with their money than what I am doing with my own.