You see, before I became prime minister, the Australian prime minister only attended ever two meetings in the world: the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the South Pacific Forum.

Nobody wants to have in their CV in the upper echelons of the American economic family that they nationalised major banks.

Politicians come in three varieties: straight men, fixers, and maddies.

If you are sitting on the title of any block of land in New South Wales you can bet an Aboriginal person at some stage was dispossessed of it.

The G7, just a European centric show, an Atlantic show, is fundamentally finished.

I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn't like them but they'll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.

Leadership is not about being nice. it's about being right and being strong