I understand that government should live within its means, value the money it holds in trust from you the taxpayer, avoid waste and, above all else, observe the first maxim of good government: namely, do no avoidable harm.

Well, I'm not saying that an emissions tax is ever going to be good policy.

It is a very heavy responsibility [to be a prime-minister] to make, but someone has to make it for our country and I am thrilled and honoured to have that opportunity and that responsibility.

To move past fear is a cliche.

I have close family members as well as lots of close friends who are gay. Many of them strongly support gay marriage.

The quality of government, I suppose, is determined not by what happens, but by how you react to what happens.

While I think men and women are equal, they are also different and I think it's inevitable and I don't think it's a bad thing at all that we always have, say, more women doing things like physiotherapy and an enormous number of women simply doing housework.