Ringing endorsement
"Whatever my personal feeling is, I'm not going to go out and vilify the leader, no matter what I think of him." — NSW right-wing ALP MLA Peter Anderson, after losing his preselection. Anderson was reported to be upset with state ALP leader Bob Carr for not supporting him more vigorously.
Unreal
"Laugh and smile. It's only politics. It's not the real world." — Advice from a NSW Liberal Party pamphlet for aspiring women candidates.
Like where to dump the poisons?
"Mining companies operating in Australia on or adjacent to Aboriginal land have a lot to learn from the Ok Tedi operation." — Aboriginal affairs minister Robert Tickner.
That'll scare 'em!
Capital Q newspaper in Sydney reports that the Ulverstone Council in north-west Tasmania responded to the UN ruling against Tasmania's anti-gay lays by passing a motion to: "Profoundly condemn the United Nations' involvement and intrusion into the domestic affairs, and against the self-determination of the sovereign State of Tasmania and its people; and inform the UN of its extreme displeasure with its attack on Tasmania's laws".
Well-bred street fighter
"The Princess of Wales is a street-wise woman with great strength of character ... according to her former riding teacher and close friend Major James Hewitt. 'She's a real fighter', Hewitt said in an American interview broadcast on British television. 'I think that may well be bred into her.'" — Sun-Herald, May 8.
Success
"This guy is a walking time bomb of Hollywood financial success." — Publicist David Schmidt on Michael Fay, the 18-year-old US man caned in Singapore for vandalism. Schmidt says Fay can get US$500,000 for pictures of his scarred buttocks. Meanwhile, Fay's mother is planning to write a book which will earn even more.