Loose Cannons

Getting ahead

"If you are soft and nice, you don't get anywhere in the ALP." — Liz McNamara, the new president of NSW Young Labor.

Very high hopes

"He [Aussie Vaughan, former Queensland secretary of the AMWU] hoped that when George [Campbell, former AMWU national secretary] went into the Senate he could help change the direction of the ALP from economic rationalism to democratic socialism." — Manufacturing Worker, August-September 1996.

Not the interfering type

"A source ... said yesterday that a possible compromise to the court battle [between Megawati Sukarnoputri and the stooge installed by the government as head of the Indonesian Democratic Party] ... had been vetoed by Mr Soeharto ... [who] rejected the plan, saying it would involve Government intervention in the dispute." — Sydney Morning Herald, August 30.

How he's changed!

"He has no understanding of the standing orders — he has to have them explained to him by the clerk — and generally he demonstrates an inability to handle the affairs of the chamber." "Quite clearly a superior candidate." — Liberal Senator Richard Alston on the qualifications of Senator Mal Colston as Senate deputy president in 1991 and 1996, respectively.

Deserves preference

"Private polling by the [NSW] Liberal Party has concluded the party is unlikely to win the Port Macquarie by-election because its preferred candidate ... refuses to join the party." — Sydney Morning Herald, August 30.

From GLW issue 245