Allow two days for arm-twisting
"I don't take the party room for granted. If it is not approved, well, it might take a day or two longer." — The Prime Menzies, John Howard, on getting backbench endorsement of his tax package.
At last: job creation
"The [Australian Taxation Office] currently employs 1000 people to administer wholesale sales tax, but will need to employ 2000 more to run a goods and services tax." — Dr Binh Tran-Nam, senior lecturer in the Australian Taxation Studies Program at the University of NSW.
Couldn't happen here
"Where there are large profits to be made, you have to be vigilant." — Anita Beaty, head of the Atlanta Task Force for the Homeless, on official mistreatment of the homeless to "clean up" Atlanta before the 1996 Olympics.
Opportunity
"A new area for police corruption and ethics." — Gil Kerlikowske, former police commissioner of Buffalo, New York, on the growing number of US police officials caught falsifying crime statistics to make themselves look better.
Help
"Help protect the environment by reducing paper wastage." — Slogan on an envelope which arrived containing three glossy brochures, two sheets of quality paper and a postage-paid return envelope, all to encourage an application for Shell Mastercard, which "pays you back in petrol".
Autonomy
"ADI is an autonomous company and operates independently from the Defence Department." — A spokesperson for defence minister Ian McLachlan, on the government-owned Australian Defence Industries sending a representative "to study the defence equipment market" in India, with which Australia has suspended defence relations because of the Indian nuclear tests.