Fed: Quotes of the year

AAP General News (Australia)
12-18-2007
Fed: Quotes of the year

AAP Senior Correspondent Doug Conway reviews Australia's year, in the words of Australians:

POLITICS:

"We have struggled in the fields, we have fought the good fight and we have prevailed."

- New Prime Minister Kevin Rudd hails Labor's election victory.

"I accept full responsibility for the Liberal Party campaign and I therefore accept
full responsibility for the coalition's defeat." - Outgoing PM John Howard.

"Howard can't win. I can. We can, but he can't." - Former treasurer Peter Costello,
in an alleged conversation with a group of journalists in 2005 made public this year.

"Last year I argued the case for generational change and I put that view to my colleagues,
a majority of whom did not agree." - Peter Costello, explaining why he would not be standing
for the Liberal leadership after the election loss.

"As one chapter closes, another opens today." - New Liberal leader Brendan Nelson.

"I wish Brendan well. And I prefer him without the earring." - Former Nationals leader
Tim Fischer.

"I believe climate change is now one of the greatest moral and economic challenges
of our time." - Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

"I said I was sorry they occurred. I don't think I used the word apology." - John Howard,
splitting hairs on interest rates.

"For the first time ever, the prime minister said to Australian voters, 'Re-elect me
and I will retire'." - Deputy Labor leader Julia Gillard.

"I think if Kevin Rudd gets any closer to John Howard he is going to have to get permission
off Janette." - Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, on "me-tooism" during the election campaign.

"He has had so many conversions on the road to Damascus - climate change, reconciliation
- if he's going round the marginal electorates handing out money for roads, he ought to
make a contribution to the government of Syria to repave the road to Damascus because
he's worn it out." - Former prime minister Bob Hawke, on John Howard.

"He's obviously different from Mark Latham in that he's a calm man and he doesn't frighten
the horses. And he's totally sane." - Bob Hawke again, on Kevin Rudd.

"Work Choices is dead." - Outgoing workplace relations minister Joe Hockey.

"For Labor, fairness is in our DNA." - Kevin Rudd.

"Sometimes when I listen to the critics I wonder whether people want a bomb to go off
in Sydney before they'll actually do something." - Former immigration minister Kevin Andrews
hits back at critics of his decision to cancel Mohamed Haneef's visa.

"This is "black children overboard ... this government is using these kids to win the
election". - Uluru man Harry Wilson, protesting at federal intervention in Northern Territory
Aboriginal communities.

"This is the age of professional women who run their own companies, who have their
own lives, and are not simply appendages of middle-aged men." - Kevin Rudd on his wife
Therese Rein.

"I am Australia's most disgraced senator." - Bill Heffernan apologises for saying
Labor's deputy leader Julia Gillard was not fit to lead because she does not have children.

"He's being used as a monkey in a cage for people to come to stare at." - US military
lawyer Major Michael Mori, on his Guantanamo Bay client, Australian David Hicks.

"Voters say it's dumb and dumber." Daily Telegraph headline after a poll which showed
voters believed neither Labor nor the coalition deserved to win the NSW election.

"I'm just a feather duster, but without any hair." - former Queensland premier Peter
Beattie, bowing out of politics.

COURTS:

"Dead men can't tell stories so it's left to their poor old wives to do it for them."

- Shirley Shackleton, widow of Greg Shackleton, one of the Balibo Five newsmen killed
in East Timor in 1975.

"You were the puppet master who decided and controlled whether people lived or died."

- Supreme Court Justice Betty King, sentencing gangland killer Carl Williams to 35 years
in jail.

"Sunday morning me and (her) woke up, and we were just talking, and for some reason
we just decided to kill her." - One of two teenage girls on trial for killing Eliza Davis
near Perth last year.

"If he doesn't agree I will sell my story. This is not a deal - it's the deal." - Former
Queensland minister Merri Rose, quoted in evidence before being jailed for blackmailing
Peter Beattie.

"He managed only to go to high school for one day and had a nervous breakdown." - Angela
Cox, the mother of bullying victim Benjamin Cox, who will receive around $1 million after
suing the NSW government.

"(Einfeld) is prepared to lie at will if he is found out about a matter, or if he perceives
there is some advantage to him to change his story." - Prosecutor Wayne Roser, to a court
which committed former Federal Court judge Marcus Einfeld for trial on 13 perjury and
traffic charges.

"Do you mind if I look at her tits?" - Gordon Wood, charged with murdering his girlfriend
Carolyne Byrne, asking a mortuary worker for one last look at her dead body, according
to a police brief.

"They're very naughty for doing what they're doing but it's really, in this case, it
was a form of childish experimentation, rather than one child being prevailed upon by
another." - Prosecutor Steve Carter, on nine males who gang raped a 10-year-old girl on
Cape York but escaped jail.

SHOWBIZ:

"I was absolutely terrified and I thought I was going to die." - Nicole Kidman, on
being pursued in her car by paparazzo Jamie Fawcett.

"My husband Andrew wouldn't come near me. He was utterly repulsed by it." - Actress
Cate Blanchett, who had to put a sock down her trousers in order to play Bob Dylan in
the biopic I'm Not There.

"I am delighted that I am going to be able to lead from the front." - Nine star turned
chief executive Eddie McGuire, who is to host a new TV game show.

SPORT

"It is our darkest day." - Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'Landys on the equine
influenza outbreak.

"It's like dreaming of sex and then really doing it." - Jockey Michael Rodd, on winning
the Melbourne Cup on Efficient.

"I sort of used it to escape all the pressure and stuff." - Rugby league great Andrew
Johns, revealing he has been taking recreational drugs for the last 10 years.

"This league will be 100 years old and this score will never be beaten." - Melbourne
Victory skipper Kevin Muscat on his team's 6-0 demolition of Adelaide United in the A-League
final, which included five goals from striker Archie Thompson.

BUSINESS:

"It's like you've jumped off a waterfall and you don't know when you're going to land
and break your neck." - Private client adviser Bill Bishop, from ABN Amro Morgans, during
August's share market turmoil.

"I sincerely regret what happened and I accept ultimate responsibility." - Visy group
chairman and billionaire Richard Pratt, apologising for his company's price-fixing cartel.

FAREWELLS:

"He was not bitter or twisted. He forgave even his worst enemies." - Brian Banton,
speaking at the state funeral for his brother, asbestos campaigner Bernie Banton.

"I want to go, I'm doing what I want to do." - Trooper David Pearce, to his brother
Edward, before leaving for Afghanistan where he was killed by a roadside bomb.

"I will miss your cheese-spread sandwiches and our many conversations we had, not as
soldiers, but as proud fathers of young girls." - Sergeant Justin Smith, in a tribute
to Trooper Pearce.

"I want to live as close to the edge as I can without falling off." - A comment journalist
Morgan Mellish made to his mother while growing up, as recalled at the Garuda plane crash
victim's funeral.

"She knew how to light up the room, she only had to smile to do that." - Swimmer Tracey
Wickham, at the funeral of her daughter Hannah, who died of cancer aged 19.

"If we can learn anything, (it is) just grab your kids, have a good time, seize the
moment." Robert Innes, father of Morgan Innes, the ice skater killed in the ferry collision
in Sydney Harbour.

"I really could die. I mean it's an excellent adventure, providing I make it." - Adventurer
Andrew McAuley, in a message recorded before he disappeared while trying to kayak across
the Tasman Sea.

"It's over for me, I can't take it! I hear it over and over again. It feels like it
always rains." - A message 16-year-old Jodie Gater left on her MySpace page before she
and her friend Stephanie Gestier took their own lives.

"If I was a dog, by now the RSPCA would be on to my husband for cruelty and would have
me put down straight away." - Queensland mother of four, June Burns, in a TV campaign
for euthanasia. She later took her own life.

"John was always a big thinker, the difference was he always achieved what he said
he would do." - Crazy John's managing director Brendan Fleiter on the company founder
John Ilhan's sudden death, aged 42.

LIFE:

"I hope that my journey from high profile public leadership to desperation, darkness
and despair then back into the light of life will fill others to believe that as bad as
things get ... things will get better." - Former NSW opposition leader John Brogden, speaking
out about his suicide attempt two years ago.

"We came as free people. We bought our own tickets. We are entitled to Australia more
than they are." - Australia's controversial mufti Sheik Taj Aldin Alhilali compares Muslims
to those with a convict heritage.

"You loser, you sent the message to the wrong person." - Shane Warne's ex-wife Simone
Callahan, replying to a text message he mistakenly sent to her, inviting another woman
to his home.

"I have come to the conclusion that she was a devious moron." - Controversial Australian
academic Germaine Greer on the late Princess Diana.

"I do the lot, the nappies, the wake-ups, brekkie. She gets up about 5.30 or 6 and
she climbs up on top of me and that smiling little face ... it's like winning the lottery
10 times over." - A mellow Paul Keating on his granddaughter Avalon.

"It was inappropriate behaviour - but I don't regret it." - Qantas air hostess Lisa
Robertson, sacked after admitting to a mile-high sex romp with British actor Ralph Fiennes.

"Do not launch or throw in the direction of other people." - The warning label on a
frisbee, which received a CHOICE Shonky Award for "spoiling the fun".

AAP dc/sp

KEYWORD: YEARENDER QUOTES

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