Loose cannons
Right people
“I made the appointments myself on the principle of putting the right people in the right jobs.” -- Keizo Obuchi, Japan's new prime minister and Liberal Democratic Party leader, after naming to the LDP's three top jobs representatives of the party's next three largest factions after his own.
Journalistic impartiality
“Anyone who doesn't buy this book is an illiterate bum” -- Headline in the July 28 Sydney Daily Telegraph on an article puffing the new biography of Kim Beazley.
Friendly persuasion
“We are 100% behind him.” -- A spokesperson for British Go airline, on a pilot who locked 148 passengers in his plane for 40 minutes, demanding a confession from the one who had smoked in the aircraft lavatory.
Income requirements?
“Meeting all the requirements.” -- Australian Water Services managing director Pierre Alla, describing operations of the private company's water treatment plant, blamed for contamination of Sydney water supplies with two potentially fatal parasites.
Surprise!
“The price of unloading containers on Australian wharves is not expected to fall despite the big cost savings anticipated from the deal between Patrick Stevedores and the Maritime Union of Australia.” -- Financial Review, August 1.
Not a briefing, a longing
“... junior ministers, parliamentary secretaries and select backbenchers emerged from the [cabinet's] nine hours of briefings [on the GST] confident the package could be sold to voters.” -- Sydney Morning Herald, August 1.
