His master's voice
"There is a valid reason when business says to you that a stock exchange will get a jump on you ... That is a reason I wouldn't ignore." — NSW Premier John Fahey, explaining his abrupt reversal of the view that there was "no reason" for NSW to follow Victoria and South Australia in extending daylight time.
Grow our own? Nonsense!
"... the [timber] industry ... rejects absolutely any suggestion that native forest harvesting will not be a feature of the industry's activities for many decades to come." — Colin Dorber, NSW Forest Products Association executive director, on suggestions that plantation timber should replace logging of public forests.
That's us
"I think the Liberal Party has to go downmarket. We have to appeal to the broad mass of people of the Australian public." — Liberal front-bencher Peter Costello, quoted in the April 12 Bulletin.
Year of the family
"Russian aviation officials acknowledged yesterday that a crew member of the national airline, Aeroflot, was teaching his children to fly when the jetliner he was piloting slammed into a Siberian mountain last month, killing all 75 people aboard." — Sydney Morning Herald, April 7.
Perceptive
A shrewd observer, the king of Thailand has made PM Paul Keating a member of the Most Exalted Order of the White Elephant.
No scrounge
"It's a monstrous untruth to portray me as some pathetic figure scrounging around for whatever favour I can get." — Retiring NSW Labour Council secretary Michael Easson, countering a Sydney Morning Herald report on his efforts to be appointed to either the Senate or the state Legislative Council.
What do you mean, not radical?
"Our demands in this dispute have not been radical. We have simply argued that party rules be upheld." — NSW ALP left official Anthony Albanese on the barney that erupted when party officials cancelled two rank-and-file preselections to protect right-wing sitting members.