Prima facie, every estate, whether given by will or otherwise, is supposed to be beneficial to the party to whom it is so given.

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.

It was a positive sign that the conversation took place, it's a sign of the depth of the friendship between Australia and Indonesia.

We are a very like-minded group, the senior members of this government. The outliers are not very far away from the mainstream.

I think that marriage is, dare I say it, between a man and a woman, hopefully for life and there are all sorts of other relationships which should be acknowledged and recognised, but I don't know that they can be recognised as marriage.

We have already provided a strong humanitarian response to the problems in the Middle East and that response will be stronger within coming days.

Another big problem with any Australian emissions reduction scheme is that it would not make a material difference to atmospheric carbon concentrations unless the big international polluters had similar schemes.