The Australian people expect the Government to govern, they don't expect it to make excuses.

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

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

Here we go again, a government which is making yet more excuses for yet more failure when it comes to getting our budgetary situation right.

What we are determined to do is to take more people from Syria and that war-torn part of the world as a response to this particular crisis, but again I stress we are taking people from camps because the last thing we want to do is to encourage and reward people smuggling.We are taking people from camps and we are taking family groups; our focus will be on family groups, from persecuted minorities.

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

There is much to be said for an emissions trading scheme. It was, after all, the mechanism for emission reduction ultimately chosen by the Howard government.