From the brontosaurus's mouth
"The ACTU secretary, Mr Bill Kelty, has warned that unions are doomed in Australia unless they stop being big bureaucratic organisations and get closer to both members and new recruits." — Sydney Morning Herald, February 18.
Compassionate
"Bill [Kelty] is a very compassionate, family-oriented man. I think he'll still speak to me." — Anna Booth, joint national secretary of the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Union, on Kelty's reaction to her decision to leave the union movement.
March of progress
"The Mississippi State Senate [on February 17] voted unanimously to outlaw slavery by approving ratification of the 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution." — Sydney Morning Herald, February 18.
We've made so many of them
"Labor's commitment to the disadvantaged is clear from our record and the evidence." — Federal social security minister Peter Baldwin in the Bulletin, February 28.
Who, us?
"... a meeting of more than 80 business representatives in Melbourne yesterday ... warned the Government against setting specific [greenhouse gas] reduction targets or imposing penalties for a failure to reach particular expectations." — Financial Review, February 22.
Psycho
"I know it looks intimidating, but the emergency response team uses intimidating psychological tactics. They are very deliberate, very calculating." — A spokesperson for the Canadian Correctional Service after Canadian television showed a videotape of male riot squad members violently stripping women prisoners.
Strain
"No matter how close a family is, when you see your net wealth go down, say, from $400-$500 million to maybe $100 million, that's a strain." — Rodney Adler, quoted in the Financial Review Magazine on the hardships of life when his father, major FAI insurance shareholder Larry Adler, popped off.