Count ourselves lucky?
"Even though we ended up with a boom and a recession which followed ... it could have been catastrophic." Paul Keating explaining how the ALP's skills in managing economic policy avoided hardship and economic turmoil.
Well that's OK then
"[There are] a whole range of human rights problems around the world." Minister for Defence Robert Ray in the August 6-7 Weekend Australian apparently arguing that although hundreds of thousands of people have been killed in East Timor it is not so bad when compared to other murderous regimes.
Ever the politician
"People will now learn I'm not just a politician, I'm human", Alexander Downer after a series of back-flips and blunders on his Aboriginal affairs policy.
Not true Gareth?
"The notion that all politicians must be maniacally obsessed by determination to clamber up the next rock on the mountainside is not one that is necessarily true. There are times when you sit on your rock and look out at the surrounding terrain and the distance you have already climbed ... and you say that's really a pretty satisfying way to be spending one's life." Gareth Evans in August 5 Financial Review, being rather coy about his career ambitions.