The argument [behind climate change] is absolute crap. However, the politics of this are tough for us. Eighty per cent of people believe climate change is a real and present danger.

I am extremely unwilling that we should take upon ourselves to exercise a jurisdiction which the law does not vest in us.

Whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.

I see myself as a social conservative, but I think that there are lots of social institutions that produce beneficial reforms, like public hospitals, for instance, and schools.

It is very important for our long-term economic future that the relationship with Japan, Korea and China, who are our three biggest trading partners, be ever stronger.

I am in favour of the notion of Australia as an immigrant society

There will be no surprises and no excuses from a Coalition government, Barrie.