Powerful arguments
"When you get into Cabinet, if you don't have the support of the prime minister, at the end of the argument you don't win." — Health minister and numbers man Graham Richadson.
What a relief
"Pentagon officials now believe that the [US Gulf War] veterans — who are complaining of cancerous tumours, soreness and nausea — might have been exposed to small amounts of industrial chemical pollutants, possibly blowing from large tanks used to store fertiliser and ammonia in Saudi Arabia." — Sydney Morning Herald, November 12. The sick veterans thought they might have been exposed to chemical warfare agents.
She doesn't mean Jeff
"I have the greatest respect for the Victorians. The Victorians had already expressed what we are now discovering: they made a distinction between the deserving and the undeserving poor." — Margaret Thatcher, one of the undeserving rich.
Trying
"... it is important to make it easy for employers to try people out. That includes not penalising employers with onerous redundancy provisions if they find the employees unsatisfactory." — Dr Ed Shann of Access Economics, writing of "solutions" to unemployment in Business Review Weekly.
Right decision
"The information that came out since I issued the termination letter makes me doubly sure that I made the right decision." — NSW Premier John Fahey after an arbitrator ruled he had acted wrongly in sacking an employee he found unsatisfactory, former agent-general in London Neil Pickard. Pickard will get at least $66,000, and possibly $266,000 in onerous redundancy provisions.
Prefers golden arches?
"... if I may be critical, I think the club has gone a bit far in provision of feeding the population — the sight of a Chinese takeaway propped up against the members' stand is not encouraging." — David McNicoll in the Bulletin on the Melbourne Cup.