Australia will take more refugees from Syria in response to the growing international crisis but it will not increase the total number of asylum seekers it accepts.

What will most certainly happen is that there will be very clear and full communication between the government and independents and minor parties. The precise mechanisms will evolve over time, but we certainly intend to keep the minor parties and the independents very much in the loop. We have to if we want our legislative agenda to have a reasonable chance of success and that's what we intend to do.

We shouldn't be willy-nilly creating potential human life just to satisfy the urges of the scientific community.

We've got to get the system right. That's why we've got this root-and-branch reform under way.

Political parties don't work when people just announce what they are doing and expect everyone else to follow.

I think all senior politicians tend to be rather more subtle then the commentators would have it. It is a natural tendency for human beings to try to classify. We all have this classification urge - so and so is such and such, that person is in that camp - but look, most sophisticated people defy stereotype.

The role of CO2 is not nearly as clear as the climate catastrophists would suggest.