Aaron Patrick > Quotes

“The Nationals, though, were frustrated by the protocols of Coalition government. They had limited scope to oppose Abbott and his ministers publicly, and so they felt ignored and taken for granted. ‘If you don’t throw a rock through the window, you won’t get heard,’ one Nationals MP said. ‘We don’t want to become an arm of the Liberal Party.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“In 2010, on the ABC’s 7.30 program, he made the bizarre qualification that what he said spontaneously couldn’t be taken as his formal position: ‘In the heat of discussion you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark. Which is one of the reasons why the statements that need to be taken absolutely as gospel truth [are] those carefully prepared, scripted remarks.’ In a comment that wasn’t off-the-cuff, Abbott was exempting himself from being held to his own words – a privilege he never gave prime minister Julia Gillard.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“He got a call from a journalist, who was in another room on the same floor. Come and join us for a drink, the journalist said. O’Leary walked across. There, he found a celebration of the broader Abbott family, select journalists, including conservative writers Piers Akerman, Miranda Devine, Greg Sheridan and Dennis Shanahan, and dignitaries such as Max Moore-Wilton, a former head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under Howard.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“Ruddock was the only person in the party held accountable for the failures that had almost removed Abbott and Credlin after less than eighteen months in office. According to Queensland MP Andrew Laming, ‘It was like the farmer shooting the sheep dog because he left the gate open and the sheep ran out.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“Bronwyn Bishop, the shadow minister for seniors, was appointed speaker of the House of Representatives, a well-paid but undemanding job that would gratify her love of state-supplied perks without risking her questionable judgement on a government department.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“During the dinner, the pair broke away for a private conversation,’ journalist Phillip Coorey reported, ‘during which Mr Murdoch complained to Mr Abbott that the government’s communications strategy was poor and was failing to sell the right messages, and that he had “the wrong people” in the job. Similar criticisms were being made by columnists and editorials in the Murdoch press.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“On a flight back from Afghanistan, where he’d been visiting Australian soldiers, Abbott said something indiscreet to Channel Seven correspondent Mark Riley – and Credlin kicked him in the shin. Another time she placed her hand in front of his mouth, mid-sentence, to stop him giving away something to a reporter.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“To make his point, Jensen had come armed with a simple question: which minister was responsible for Australia’s thirty-five Cooperative Research Centres, organisations that had been given $4 billion by the government to do research sought by the private sector? Abbott admitted that he didn’t know. ‘I should know this,’ he said. ‘Therein lies the problem,’ Jensen replied.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“She did his make-up, tied his ties, adjusted his hair. Credlin was simultaneously his political adviser, office administrator, groomer and host.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“Dupont had a long history of analysing Australia’s position in the world. He was also a pioneer in the study of links between climate change and international security, an area that few defence experts had explored. In 2006 he asserted in an article, written with Graeme Pearman, that the security implications of climate change had been largely ignored by public policy experts, academics and journalists. ‘Climate change is fast emerging as the security issue of the 21st century,’ he wrote, ‘overshadowing terrorism and even the spread of weapons of mass destruction as the threat most likely to cause mega-death and contribute to state failure, forced population movements, food and water scarcity and the spread of infectious diseases.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“In 2015 one of the most powerful jobs in the bureaucracy, that of cabinet secretary, went to a public relations executive, Matthew Stafford, who thus had access to cabinet meetings.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“A new leader emerged from the failed spill: more consultative, more willing to reach out to opponents and more politically realistic.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“The scheme was a fascinating mix of traditionalism, elitism, feminism and socialism.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“The decision stood: the borders were closed to dead lions. Wood and Hunt were asked to speak at a ceremony celebrating the decision held at Federation Square in central Melbourne. An international conservationist appeared by video link from South Africa. As a semi-affectionate joke, Canavan bought a soft toy lion, ripped the head off, mounted it on a piece of wood and offered it to Hunt’s office, which declined the gift. The lion now sits in the National Party’s whip’s office, where it is named ‘Cecil’, in honour of a famous lion killed in Zimbabwe by an American hunter with a bow and arrow in July 2015.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself

“One of the Coalition policies most resented by Nationals backbenchers proposed that companies would be paid to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. With a budget of $2.55 billion over four years, the ‘Direct Action’ scheme was widely seen as a second-rate compromise that allowed the government to assert that it was fighting global warming while it abolished Labor’s emissions trading scheme. ‘That’s not going to change the temperature of the globe but it’s a lot of money at the moment,’ one Nationals MP said.”
― Aaron Patrick, Credlin & Co.: How the Abbott Government Destroyed Itself