We cannot suffer a person by his affidavit to arraign the whole justice of the country and its administration.

Faith is important to me. It's important to millions of Australians. It helps to shape who I am. It helps to shape my values. But it must never, never dictate my politics.

We are about getting things done. We are not about the blame game. We are not about making excuses.

Both Mum and Dad were converts to Catholicism, and normally if you convert to Catholicism you have thought about it more than someone who just grew up with it, taking it for granted.

I think we've produced a stronger prohibition on real racism, while maintaining freedom of speech in ordinary public discussion. So I'm very comfortable with where we're at. We're not dogmatic or impervious to a further argument, that's why we released it as an exposure draft rather than simply releasing it straight into the parliament.

I feel a little uncomfortable at being asked the sorts of questions that other Catholics in public life tend not to be asked.

I have close family members as well as lots of close friends who are gay. Many of them strongly support gay marriage.