AAP General News (Australia)
08-20-2010
FED:Some of the quotes of the campaign
GILLARD
"This election, I believe, presents Australians with a very clear choice: this election
is about the choice as to whether we move Australia forward or go back." - July 17.
"It's all pretty silly, and my advice to anyone (is) ... it would be better (to attend)
campaign events fully clothed." - On a Speedo-clad gatecrasher at an Abbott function.
July 20.
"What's happened in the last 24 hours is, if you can't trust Mr Abbott to keep his
promise to not change the Fair Work Act ... how can you trust him not to bring back the
worst aspects of Work Choices?" - July 21.
"Tim and I live together. Wherever I live, he will live." - on her de facto partner
Tim Mathieson. July 27.
"I am not a soft touch. I am going to ask the hard questions. I am going to make sure
we run the ruler over every proposal and ask: 'Is this affordable?'" - July 28
"Obviously a combination of make-up and lighting does you a lot of good." - On her
Women's Weekly cover shot. July 28.
"If there is anyone in my government, if we are re-elected, that does not respect the
confidentiality of cabinet they then will no longer be a cabinet minister." - July 29
"I think it's time for me to make sure that the real Julia Gillard is well and truly
on display. I'm going to discard all of that campaign advice and professional or common
wisdom and just go for it." - August
2.
"Tony Abbott's running from the scrutiny of a debate ... or he thinks he's got this
election in the bag, and he can just sail through without the accountability of another
debate." - August 3
"I made a judgment about saving the country from recession by investing in schools.
I stand by that judgment and I would make it again today. There's no point saying `Let's
wait for years and years and years and years'. People join the dole queues, join the dole
queues, join the dole queues while we fiddle around." - On her decision to roll out the
BER. - August 5.
"If we say what we've got now is basically good enough, we are actually condemning
Australia to that kind of frozen-in-time attitude. Imagine missing out on all of the possibilities
of the future." - August 12 on broadband.
"There are some things that can't be measured." - Gillard's response on ABC Television's
Q&A to the question "how big of a tool is Mark Latham" on a scale of one to ten?
"Friends I'm too humble to compare myself to either (Ben Chifley or Barack Obama) but
I am asking ... when you vote on Saturday ... to say 'yes we will'." - August 16.
"In three days' time Australia could wake up with Mr (Tony) Abbott as the prime minister
of this country. It is a very, very real possibility and so a very, very real risk for
Australian families." - August 19.
"But for those Queenslanders who are then thinking for themselves `Gee I wonder what
Kevin thinks?' I can tell you what Kevin thinks - you have heard it from him directly
- he says `Get out and vote Labor over the weekend'." - August 20.
ABBOTT
"Work Choices, it's dead, it's buried, it's cremated, now and forever, but obviously,
I can't give an absolute guarantee about every single aspect of workplace relations legislation."
- July 19.
"If households, small business (and) families have got to tighten their belts it's
only right and proper that government should be tightening its belt too." - July 20.
"The Labor Party can't build a toilet under the BER (Building Education Revolution)
for under a quarter of a million dollars." - July 20.
"Bring back Kevin Rudd, the Queenslander wasn't so bad after all." - July 26.
"Obviously senior people inside the Labor Party are now working against the prime minister
and if the government is re-elected, it will be a very divided, very unhappy government,
and that's not going to be good for our country." - July 28.
"Since Julia Gillard took over, we've gone from incompetence to incompetence, chaos
to chaos, shambles to shambles." - July 29
"I'm a pretty good stirrer." - As he stirs a giant pot of soup in Norwood Meals on
Wheels in Adelaide. - July 30
"I can't be expected to know whether it's the real Julia or someone else who's talking.
She said no repeatedly (to a second debate), and when she said no, I thought she meant
no." - August 3.
"What we are promising is more beds not more bureaucrats, we are promising consultation
not coercion, and we are promising community initiative rather than just government dictation."
- August 5
"Julia Gillard is not fit to be a minister, let alone the prime minister." - Abbott,
after an interim report on the government's BER showed the program inflated building costs
by up to 12 per cent.
"I've said all along that winning the election is going to be like climbing Mt Everest."
- August 9
"I'm no Bill Gates here ... if you are going to get me into a technical argument, I'm
going to lose it because I am not a tech head" - after being quizzed on the broadband
plan on ABC Television. - August 10
"Just because you don't know exactly how every last detail of the motor car works doesn't
mean that you can't drive it effectively and that's my job." - On his understanding of
the Coalition's broadband policy. August 11
"Nauru is ready, willing and able to do it and the fact that they (Labor) are not prepared
to do it at Nauru shows that there will never, ever be offshore processing under Labor."
- August 11.
"I am running for the biggest job in the country and if you're running for a big job
you've got to make a big effort." - Aug 20, on campaigning for 36 hours straight.
OTHERS
"Life's just too short to carry around a great bucket-load of anger and resentment
and bitterness and hatreds and all that sort of stuff. It's been a tough old time, there's
no point pretending that it hasn't. I can't just stand idly by at the prospect of Mr Abbott
sliding into office by default." - Former prime minister Kevin Rudd says he will campaign
for the re-election of Gillard.
"We have this desire by Julia Gillard to have a selective amnesia, which now calls
on us to remember that the person she got rid of, is now the person she is relying on
to support her." - Nationals Senator Barnaby Joyce on Gillard and Rudd.
"Please believe we can win this election. We have a great opportunity to seize our
future ... to turf out a thoroughly incompetent government." - Former prime minister John
Howard.
"When it comes to good ideas for Australia's future, Gillard and Abbott have given
the voters a blank piece of paper. I say let's give them a blank piece of paper in return."
- Former Labor leader Mark Latham in his 60 Minutes report. (August
"Piss off, Latham, this is not about you." - An ex-servicemen to Latham who turned
up to an Abbott function.
"But if your car is just going to break down in a year anyway, why don't you just spend
the money?" - At the Rooty Hill Q and A, 18-year-old Cassie, is not convinced by the Coalition's
broadband plan or Mr Abbott's analogy about not buying expensive fast cars just because
they sounded like fun.
"I want to ask the woman I love 'will you marry me?' not 'will you civil service me?'
- Janice Waters, a 40-year-old Old Toongabbie resident, demands to know from Gillard when
same-sex marriage would be legalised at the Rooty Hill town hall forum.
"If there were to be a balance of power in the lower house, then we would use all our
experience - and it's greater than the other parties - to ensure that Australians get
the best possible outcome. If it was to happen, there can be no more experienced team
in Australian history." - Bob Brown. Aug 20.
"I couldn't care less who is the prime minister of Australia - what I do care about
is the survival of the people I represent." - Queensland independent Bob Katter, on who
he might support if there is a hung parliament. (August 20)
"Our candidates will never be found on the Queen's Birthday honours list or at the
prime minster's cocktail party." - Australia Sex Party leader Fiona Patten.
AAP jlw/it
KEYWORD: POLL10 QUOTES
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