Better than an inquiry
“Almost two years after the NFPS [National Forest Policy Statement] was signed by all States, except Tasmania, not one area of forest has been protected, but many important areas of forests have been logged.” -- Letter from federal ALP backbenchers to PM Paul Keating.
Only one?
“Politicians don't work for the people -- the system works for the politicians. It's a huge crime to be so greedy and to let the people down and the country fall apart. Politicians are one step below used car salesmen. So Sonny's perfectly at home there.” -- Cher on ex-husband Sonny Bono's election to the US Congress.
Even he gets it
“It's not hard to understand that Sydney residents believe they have been misled by the airport authorities.” -- Laurie Brereton, federal minister for falling things, on the public's outraged reaction to the noise from aircraft using the new runway at Sydney airport.
But he's working on it
“The historic nature of this meeting is difficult to exaggerate.” -- PM Keating on the Bogor APEC gathering.
Achievement
“It's much stronger than we expected. When postal and pre-poll votes are counted, the two party preferred vote will be about the same level as Andrew Peacock had achieved.” -- Liberal leader (still) Alexander Downer, relieved at winning the Kooyong by-election, in which Labor didn't stand.
For the customers
“It [banking] is a customer-driven game. We've got to be able to package products.” -- Don Argus, managing director of the National Australia Bank, which has just reported profits of $1.7 billion.
Painless
“Introducing fees is relatively painless providing there is a commensurate effort to compensate for the fees with service.” -- Bank analyst Karen Udovenya, explaining that banks plan to increase the part of their profits that comes from fees.
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