Tony Abbott Quotes

Every prime minister has a whole series of networks, and there are official formal networks and there are unofficial informal networks. I'm lucky in that I have good official formal networks, starting with my own office, the leadership group, the cabinet and the party room.

A bit of body contact never hurt anyone.

Look, good government doesn't look for excuses, good government gets on with the job.

I don't bring religion into the square.

I was a very senior minister in the Howard government and I sat around this particular table [in the prime ministerial office] in many discussions. The difference between being a senior minister and the prime minister is that ultimately the buck does stop with the prime minister and in the end the prime minister has to make those critical judgement calls and that's the big difference.

The climate change argument is absolute crap

When politicians complain about the media, it strikes me as resembling footballers complaining about the umpire.

We are sticking with the plan. We have a plan to get taxes down, to get regulation down, to get productivity up, to create jobs, to reduce taxes, to boost prosperity. The plan is working and we are sticking with it.

A tax cut to compensate for a tax increase is not a cut - it's a con.

I see myself as a social conservative, but I think that there are lots of social institutions that produce beneficial reforms, like public hospitals, for instance, and schools.

The media - and I'm not blaming them - obviously like to seize on the differences between people and, sure, there are some senior members of the government who are in a slightly different philosophical space to mine. But do not underestimate the substantial single-mindedness of this government.

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

In respect of Indonesia, I am determined to be the best possible friend of Indonesia that I can be, consistent with my overriding duty to protect our country. We would never do anything that was damaging to Indonesia, because we want Indonesia to flourish. We want Indonesia to take its rightful place as one of the really important countries of the world, as it will, sooner or later.

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.

Our police, our hard-working police, that our extraordinarily committed and dedicated military personnel, I'm really pleased that they are getting a good paid parental leave scheme.

In the era of mobile phones and emails, you're no more out of the loop in China than you are in Sydney.

I want to be a very good friend to Indonesia, but there are some things which are non-negotiable. Border protection is just non-negotiable. Maintaining a strong security network is just non-negotiable. I think the Indonesians understand that.

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

Aboriginal people have much to celebrate in this country's British heritage

There is one fundamental message that we want to go out from this place to every nook and cranny of our country: There should be no new tax collection without an election.

Now if you are condemned to life on welfare, I'm not so sure that being in a bigger welfare village is that much better than being in a smaller welfare village.

The choice made by families not to immunize their children is not supported by public policy or medical research nor should such action be supported by taxpayers in the form of child care payments.

It's very easy for Australians living in big cities to either romanticise or demonise the situation in Aboriginal places - to kind of look at things through the 'noble innocents' prism or through the 'chronically dysfunctional' prism, and I suspect that is so often the case.

Well, Michael, we will be telling the people of Australia in good time before the next election exactly what they can expect from us. No surprises, no excuses. They will be our watch words going into the election and afterwards, should we form a government.

And the commitment that I've been giving to the Australian people is that there'll be no surprises and no excuses under a Coalition government.

More excuses for more failures.

We have a strong and credible broadband policy because the man who has devised it, the man who will implement it virtually invented the Internet in this country.

We just can’t stop people from being homeless if that’s their choice.

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

I'm a politician. I'm not going to get into a whole range of scientific argument with scientists.

The smart way to improve broadband is not to junk the existing network but to make the most of it. It’s to let a competitive market deliver the speeds that people need at an affordable price with government improving infrastructure in the areas where market competition won’t deliver it.

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

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.

When the world is in trouble, Australia responds. Australia is a good, global citizen.

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

I am extremely unwilling that we should take upon ourselves to exercise a jurisdiction which the law does not vest in us.

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

We can't conclusively say whether man-made carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to climate change.

We are going to be a government of no surprises and no excuses; a government which keeps its commitments and a government which is straight and candid with the Australian people and that's what we intend to do.

Part of my role, I suppose, is to run government business in the House of Representatives, and try to ensure that people know exactly what's going on in the Chamber is an important part of that.

No one, however smart, however well-educated, however experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom.

I try to treat people as people and not put them in pigeonholes.

I want to run a government, Barnaby wants to be part of a government, which is characterized by the motto if you like, no surprises, no excuses. That will be the motto of an incoming Coalition government. No surprises, no excuses.

I want to make it clear that I do not judge or condemn any woman who has had an abortion, but every abortion is a tragedy and up to 100,000 abortions a year is this generation's legacy of unutterable shame.

This is a government which is proposing to put at risk our manufacturing industry, to penalise struggling families, to make a tough situation worse for millions of households right around Australia. And for what? To make not a scrap of difference to the environment any time in the next 1000 years.

Most of the people who are coming to Australia by boat have passed through several countries on the way, and if they simply wanted asylum they could have claimed that in any of the countries through which they'd passed.

If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax?

Voluntary paid maternity leave: yes; compulsory paid maternity leave: over this Government’s dead body, frankly. It just won’t happen.