Loose cannons

@columhead = Sick

"If a drug is good for people, but it doesn't make a profit for the drug company, our system has a problem." — Dr Stephen Jurd, head of drug and alcohol services at Royal North Shore Hospital in Sydney, on the unavailability of a drug used to treat alcoholism.

@columhead = And racist

"Australia is being a tad singled out on this issue because we are a gutsy, up-front country." — Foreign minister Alexander Downer, being only a tad sillier than usual as he tries to explain the government's objection to a human rights clause that the European Union includes in all its international economic agreements.

@columhead = Model

"Australia should not be perpetually apologising for sins of the past because it had been a model of tolerance since European settlement, the Prime Minister said yesterday." — Sydney Morning Herald, January 27. Being a racist means never having to say you're sorry.

@columhead = Priorities

"US policy remained the effort 'to develop institutions' that 'can support an evolution toward democracy and capital markets." — US Secretary of state Madeleine Albright, quoted in the January 28 Sydney Morning Herald.

@columhead = Lots of practice?

"I think people were ready to accept a tough budget last time, but to turn around now and say we have to find billions of dollars more ... I mean, how could Treasury get it so wrong?" — Coalition backbencher Alex Somlyay on the federal government's latest "black hole".

@columhead = Of course they have no intention ...

"Talking to the federal coalition about a GST is like talking to the pope about Catholic theology." — Treasurer Peter Costello.

From GLW issue 261