Quotes from Tony Abbott

If people are going to do things which have certain consequences that they would rather avoid, they should do whatever they need to avoid the consequences.

It's very easy for Australians living in big cities to either romanticise or demonise the situation in Aboriginal places - to kind of look at things through the 'noble innocents' prism or through the 'chronically dysfunctional' prism, and I suspect that is so often the case.

Climate change is crap.

I don't bring religion into the square.

Even potential human life needs to be treated with great respect.

A presumption of any fact is, properly, an inferring of that fact from other facts that are known; it is an act of reasoning; and much of human knowledge on all subjects is derived from this source.

I'm not saying that people on welfare don't contribute in their own way, but as many as possible should be encouraged to be economically active as well as socially and culturally active.

What I would like to see is sufficiently good education and health services being delivered to Aboriginal people so that they are prepared and ready to leave and join the economic mainstream if that's their choice.

The Australian public are very fair and they are always prepared to give the leader of a major political party a fair go.

Once people come to Australia, they join the team.

I think that the best things that governments can do for productivity is not whack on new taxes and, if we can get institutions like schools and hospitals functioning better, well that's obviously good for the overall productiveness of our society.

If we boost productivity, we can improve economic growth.

I am in favour of the notion of Australia as an immigrant society

I instinctively try to protect people from filth.

I do enjoy exercise, not because I am an exercise junkie but because it's terrific stress release.

I'm confident that there are plenty of people who have the strength of character and the presence of mind to warn me of difficulties and alert me to opportunities.

We shouldn't be willy-nilly creating potential human life just to satisfy the urges of the scientific community.

My commitment to the forgotten families of Australia is to ease your cost of living pressure.

The problem with politicians getting to know the issues in indigenous townships is that we tend to suffer from what Aboriginal people call the 'seagull syndrome' - we fly in, scratch around and fly out.

All of the people who are using their BlackBerries or their iPhones, Facebook, all of the people who are sitting in cafes and hotels rooms doing their work, they're all using wireless technology, and we shouldn't assume that the only way of the future is high speed cable.

I understand that government should live within its means, value the money it holds in trust from you the taxpayer, avoid waste and, above all else, observe the first maxim of good government: namely, do no avoidable harm.

I think it's time for the Prime Minister to stop making excuses and to start governing.

Now if you are condemned to life on welfare, I'm not so sure that being in a bigger welfare village is that much better than being in a smaller welfare village.

I feel a little uncomfortable at being asked the sorts of questions that other Catholics in public life tend not to be asked.