On the way up

"I'm looking to rise up to be state or federal director of the Liberal Party, and I've got to go through certain avenues to get there." -- Rod Dent, son of the first person to die under the NT's euthanasia law, explaining why he has reversed his position and is now supporting a federal private member's bill (also supported by the Prime Menzies) to override the NT legislation.

Feeling no pain

"London -- Former Conservative government minister [Northern Ireland, social security] Sir Nicholas Scott on Monday lost his battle to avoid being deselected for one of the ruling party's safest parliamentary seats ... Scott was found face down on the road by police after a reception at a Conservative Party conference in October. He denied he was drunk, blaming his condition on pain-killers." -- Reuters report, December 3.

Coincidence

"The fact that the cable network terminates at this location ... is entirely coincidental." -- An Optus spokesperson, responding to comments on the fact that the company's eyesore pay TV cables, hung from power poles in Sydney, stop on either side of the house of Optus' network services manager.

Relentless

"If there is a villain in the piece, it is the relentless march of TV-driven commercialism and professionalism in all sport." -- Noel Neate, chief executive officer of the Sydney Cricket Ground Trust, on the fact that advertising, having previously taken over the boundary fence, every vertical surface in the stands and players' uniforms, is now being displayed on the sightscreens.

Thinker

"Wilderness is essentially a way of thinking which means different things to different people." -- Minister for the environment Senator Robert Hill.

March of progress

"Aesop [a medical robot which makes a voiced acknowledgment and then follows doctors' voiced commands] was given a female voice after US surgeons, used to telling nurses what to do, complained they did not like giving instructions to a machine with a male voice." -- Sydney Morning Herald, December 6.

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