Why isn’t the fact that 100,000 women choose to end their pregnancies regarded as a national tragedy approaching the scale, say, of Aboriginal life expectancy being 20 years less than that of the general community?

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.

No senior politician can expect to have work-life balance. I'm afraid there are some jobs for which work-life balance inevitably goes out the window. If you want work-life balance you just have to accept that you can't be a senior member of a government, or for that matter a senior member of an opposition.

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 would not want to see any relaxation of the law prohibiting human cloning.

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

So, my friends, in a week or so the Governor-General will swear in a new government.