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

We are looking at what more we can do. As well as a strong security response we need a strong humanitarian one.

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 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.

There's a sense in which politicians can never work hard enough.

We will be a consultative, collegial government. No surprises, no excuses. That's what you'll get under the Coalition.

I also think that if you want to put a price on carbon, why not just do it with a simple tax? Why not ask motorists to pay more, why not ask electricity consumers to pay more and then at the end of the year you can take your invoices to the tax office and get a rebate of the carbon tax you've paid