Certainly not
"He is certainly not an employee." — Philip von Hardenberg, manager of Sydney's Ritz Carlton hotel, on being asked whether Bob Hawke is paying the full rate of $525 per night, or whether he has a special deal for the several months until his harbourside home is vacated by its existing tenant and renovated.
Much?
"The entrepreneurs were hyped, the excitement of the bull market was not subjected to much critical scrutiny ... It must be extremely embarrassing now for those who wrote them to reread the articles written at the height of the boom." — Professor Julianne Schultz commenting on the media in the '80s at the Ideas for Australia conference, held in Melbourne last week.
Western justice
Erich Mielke, 84 year-old former head of the East German Stasi (secret police) is presently on trial in Berlin ... for killing two cops in 1931 when he was a 23 year-old member of the Communist Party. In 1934, after he had fled to the USSR, Mielke was tried and convicted in absentia on evidence gathered by Hitler's Gestapo. Present-day German authorities didn't want to risk trying Mielke for his activities as head of the Stasi because there was a good chance he wouldn't have been convicted under East German law, which must be used in prosecutions for crimes prior to reunification.
Friendly sharks
"I think part of my responsibility is to tone down the rhetoric. We are not a threat to them." — US aviation lawyer and executive Sam Coats, in Australia to work on the relaunch of Compass, discussing Ansett and Australian airlines.
Free market
"New car prices are kept low to ensure each manufacturer keeps its competitive edge in the marketplace. But in the replacement parts game, there is nowhere near the competitive risk. Once a car is sold, its manufacturer enjoys a near captive market ... parts are marketed at whatever prices the market will bear, plus some." — AAMI insurance company chief executive Brian Keane.
Too free market
"One of the councils' problems is that their budgets don't extend to paying overtime to staff for Sunday work. Also, inspectors might get their arms broken by some of the tough cookies there." — Bob Dalziel, managing director of the Coles-Myer K-Mart chain, campaigning for stricter supervision of weekend markets under the tax laws and shop regulations.
Liberal view
"If a government takes $36 billion in business taxes ... and gives back $2 billion in the form of export marketing grants ... at's called industry policy. But if you take away $20 billion and still keep some of these arrangements as we plan to do, then that's called having no industry policy. I'd rather have the $16 to $18 billion in my pocket." — Federal opposition spokesperson on industry policy Ian McLachlan explaining how things would be under a Liberal government.
Labor view
"Existing productivity can be increased from the present level of 2.5 million banked cubic metres a year to 4.3 million banked cubic metres with minimal capital outlay." — Victorian Labor government industry development minister David White explaining plans to extract a 72% increase in production from the La Trobe Valley brown coal mining workforce.