I bet his cronies are shouting: "Get that foot out of your mouth Tones!!": :^O
On abortion:
“The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother’s convenience.”
“If half the effort were put into discouraging teenage promiscuity as goes into preventing teenage speeding, there might be fewer abortions, fewer traumatised young women and fewer dysfunctional families.”
“I believe that there is a vast moral gulf which separates modern Australia from Nazi Germany. But can we be so sure that, under pressure over time, we will not slide down the same slippery slope. We only have to look at the abortion situation in this country.”
On those less fortunate:
“We just can’t stop people from being homeless if that’s their choice.”
On those more fortunate:
“Mates help each other; they do not tax each other.”
On Carbon tax
“I also think that if you want to put a price on carbon, why not just do it with a simple tax? Why not ask motorists to pay more, why not ask electricity consumers to pay more and then at the end of the year you can take your invoices to the tax office and get a rebate of the carbon tax you've paid.”
On Refugees (there are heaps but I thought this one particularly a good one):
“Jesus knew that there was a place for everything and it’s not necessarily everyone’s place to come to Australia.”
On women:
“What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it’s going to go up in price and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up.”
“It would be folly to expect that women would ever approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, their abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons.”
“While I think men and women are equal, they are also different and I think it's inevitable and I don't think it's a bad thing at all that we always have, say, more women doing things like physiotherapy and an enormous number of women simply doing housework.”
I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman’s right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man’s right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak.
I've always been very wary of debates involving women.
On our Indigenous people:
“There may not be a great job for [Aboriginal people] but whatever there is, they just have to do it, and if it’s picking up rubbish around the community, it just has to be done.”
“Now, I know that there are some Aboriginal people who aren’t happy with Australia Day. For them it remains Invasion Day. I think a better view is the view of Noel Pearson, who has said that Aboriginal people have much to celebrate in this country’s British Heritage.”
On poverty:
It’s the responsibility of government to try to put policies in place which over time will allow people to improve their situation. But we can’t abolish poverty because poverty in part is a function of individual behaviour.
Racism used to be offered as the complete explanation for Aboriginal poverty, alienation and early death. Racism hasn’t disappeared. Still, if racism caused poverty, why hasn’t poverty declined as racism diminished.
On climate change:
“The climate change argument is absolute crap, however the politics are tough for us because 80 per cent of people believe climate change is a real and present danger.”
On our Prime Minister:
“Gillard won't lie down and die.”
“Every day the Prime Minister stands in this parliament to defend this Speaker will be another day of shame for this parliament and another day of shame for a government which should have already died of shame.”
On how he became Opposition Leader:
"No, look, I am not challenging the leader. I can't say whats going to happen tomorrow, but I am not challenging the leader. I want the leader to continue in his role."
A definition of his role as Opposition Leader:
"Well, we will have policy. We must have policy. We in fact do have policy ready to go. But the first job of the Opposition is to hold the Government to account. Then once people have decided that they think the Government doesn’t deserve to be re-elected they look at us and say, ‘well, are these guys going to be a credible alternative, are they going to make a positive difference.’ and so it is a two stage process. But the first stage is making the Government look bad."
On how he will lead the country:
I can't promise that I won't continue to embarrass people
I’ve never been into making money for money’s sake and while I think it is important that the national government promote and develop a strong economy, it’s by no means the only or even, at every point, the main task of government.
There are some things the public has no particular right to know.
But sometimes, for very important reasons, for very good reasons, you have to make departures from principle.
Laurie Oakes: So another example where people couldn't believe what you said?
Tony Abbott: I think it was a situation where I changed my mind about how we were best going to achieve a very important social change and a very important economic reform.
Laurie Oakes: There's a lot of mind-changing. On paid parental leave itself. First it would only happen over your dead body?
Tony Abbott: Look, I've been quite upfront about the fact that I did change my mind on this issue but...
Laurie Oakes: A lot of issues.
Tony Abbott: That's what people do when they are mature people. They are capable of growing and changing in response to changing circumstances.
On supporting Australia:
To be honest, I think that Australian-made campaigns are feelgood campaigns at best. They're really gimmicks, if the truth be known.
And on hypocrisy:
I think that the spirit of Parliament has been needlessly confrontational, especially over the last three years.
It's hard to take politicians seriously if everything is the most terrible thing that's ever happened.
Yes, but Tony [Jones] that is a really cheap political smear and this attempt to attack people's integrity on the basis of whether they're for or against a tax. I think that's the kind of political argy-bargy which understandably gives all politicians a bad name. It's just a bit low and it shouldn't happen.
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