Quotes from Tony Abbott

I'm not running for canonisation.

There are no factions in the Liberal Party.

Most of the people who are coming to Australia by boat have passed through several countries on the way, and if they simply wanted asylum they could have claimed that in any of the countries through which they'd passed.

Do we really want to invest $50 billion of hard earned taxpayers money in what is essentially a video entertainment system?

The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother's convenience.

I think that political marriages are subject to more strain than most precisely because of the nature of politics.

There's always a lot happening. I mean, that's the thing about politics: it's just one damn thing after another!

Faith is important to me. It's important to millions of Australians. It helps to shape who I am. It helps to shape my values. But it must never, never dictate my politics.

The argument [behind climate change] is absolute crap. However, the politics of this are tough for us. Eighty per cent of people believe climate change is a real and present danger.

It was a positive sign that the conversation took place, it's a sign of the depth of the friendship between Australia and Indonesia.

Well, I'm not saying that an emissions tax is ever going to be good policy.

I think anything which improves services is in principle a good thing.

Voluntary paid maternity leave: yes; compulsory paid maternity leave: over this Government's dead body, frankly. It just won't happen.

Part of my role, I suppose, is to run government business in the House of Representatives, and try to ensure that people know exactly what's going on in the Chamber is an important part of that.

The quality of government, I suppose, is determined not by what happens, but by how you react to what happens.

The Australian people expect the Government to govern, they don't expect it to make excuses.

And a government that accepts that it will be judged more by its deeds than by its mere words.

We are a very like-minded group, the senior members of this government. The outliers are not very far away from the mainstream.

Oppositions are not there to get legislation through. Oppositions are there to hold the government to account.

Look, good government doesn't look for excuses, good government gets on with the job.

We will be a consultative, collegial government. No surprises, no excuses. That's what you'll get under the Coalition.

A government that says what it means, and means what it says.

There will be no surprises and no excuses from a Coalition government, Barrie.

To move past fear is a cliche.