He was THE great PM - time will look upon him favourably: The deregulation of banks, floating the dollar, the freeing of the Reserve Bank from government control; the creation of increased productivity through the reform of industrial relations; Native Title Bill and the Land Fund Bill; his work on ASEAN and APEC ties; environment: The Antarctic (Environmental Protection) Legislative Amendment Act 1992, The Endangered Species Protection Act 1992
You can sense how erudite he is, and how barbed that tongue of his is -
"The thing about poor old Costello is he is all tip and no iceberg. He can throw a punch across the parliament but the bloke he should be throwing a punch to is Howard, but of course he doesn't have the ticker for it."
He’s the greatest L plater of all time. * Referring to Treasurer Peter Costello,
ON HOWARD: "But I will never get to the stage of wanting to lead the nation standing in front of the mirror each morning clipping the eyebrows here and clipping the eyebrows there with Janette and the kids: It's like 'Spot the eyebrows'."
"I am not like the Leader of the Opposition. I did not slither out of the Cabinet room like a mangy maggot..."
From this day onwards, Howard will wear his leadership like a crown of thorns, and in the parliament I'll do everything to crucify him.
the little desiccated coconut is under pressure and he is attacking anything he can get his hands on... (he is) still there araldited to the seat.
oN JOHN HEWSON: I was implying that the Honorable Member for Wentworth was like a lizard on a rock - alive, but looking dead.
In conversation with a journalist: Reporter: You don't talk to ordinary people! Keating: "Who says I don't ? Who says I don't ? I mean I see as many people as perhaps anyone in public life could..." Reporter: How long is it since you've been to Fyshwick Markets ? Keating: "Not long, not long. In fact if you get down to woollies at Manuka on Saturday I'd probably run over you with a trolley as I did a journo recently."
It was we who did the dispossessing. We took the traditional lands and smashed the traditional way of life. We brought the diseases. The alcohol. We committed the murders. We took the children from their mothers. We practised discrimination and exclusion. It was our ignorance and our prejudice. And our failure to imagine these things being done to us.
* 1992 The Redfern Speech, launching International Year of Indigenous Peoples
[Australian Reserve Bank] Governor MacFarlane said recently when Paul Volcker broke the back of American inflation it's regarded as the policy triumph of the Western world. When I broke the back of Australian inflation they say, "Oh, you're the fellow that put the interest rates up." Am I not the same fellow that gave them the 15 years of good growth and high wealth that came from it?
Between 1999 and 2004 there was no investment in Australia, it all went into housing and consumption all borrowed on the current account. When Peter Costello runs around saying, 'Oh we've paid off the debt,' it's like the pea and thimble trick. The Government debt or the massive private debt abroad? It's continuing to grow.
Most politicians have] brains like sparrows' nests - all shit and sticks.
You boxhead you wouldn’t know. You are flat out counting past ten. * On Liberal MP Wilson Tuckey
Every now and then you have to flick the switch to vaudeville. * On leadership
The principle saboteur, the man with the cheap fistful of dollars. * On John Howard.
