First of all, I didn't suggest that we should simply get rid of all prisons.
Leadership is not about being nice. it's about being right and being strong
I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn't like them but they'll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.
Politicians come in three varieties: straight men, fixers, and maddies.
No choice we can make as a nation lies between our history and our geography. We can hardly change either of them. They are immutable. The only choice we can make as a nation is the choice about our future.
I think the rise of China is one of the great events of all economic and human history, and I think this will be overwhelmingly a positive thing for the region and the world.
In the end it's the big picture which changes nations and whatever our opponents may say, Australia's changed inexorably for good, for the better.
In terms of personal choices, let's all think more carefully about where we get our protein from.
Great griefs exhaust. They discourage us with life. The man into whom they enter feels something taken from him. In youth, their visit is sad; later on, it is ominous.
Hope for the best, expect the worst.
I believe that there are too many practitioners in the church, who are not believers.