Bill

“In the court of global public opinion, and in the annals of environmental history, Captain Watson will be a champion long after the last Japanese factory ship finds its resting place in the museum of selfish disregard for the living Earth upon which we all depend.”
― Robert James Brown, Optimism: Reflections on a Life of Action

“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

“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

“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