Loose cannons

Issue 

Key word: 'normal'

"I think it is quite inappropriate and has been for some time that any anthem other than our own should be played at normal Australian gatherings." — Liberal frontbencher John Howard, supporting a motion to stop playing "God Save the Queen" at Liberal Party meetings.

The leader

"I think the premier is a gutless little wimp." — NSW National MP Gerry Peacocke after Premier John Fahey dropped him from cabinet without telling him personally.

Stop press

"Politics is always a sleazy game." — Gerry Peacocke again.

Why didn't they ask him?

"I am quite sure the High Court didn't quite understand the huge ramifications of the Mabo decision." — Prime Minister Paul Keating on the Mabo land rights ruling.

Or 1850s

"The Liberal Party is made up of people mostly over 60, mostly with white Anglo-Saxon backgrounds, mostly retired and living back in the 1950s." — Former federal Liberal MP Ian McPhee.

Feeling at home

The Liberals' 1990 and 1993 federal election defeats "testify to a party largely bereft of political talent, organisational skill and grass roots enthusiasm". — NSW Liberal MLA Michael Yabsley.

And the results?

"There are very few other countries that have done as much as Australia, over the past decade, in actually changing [economic] structures and demonstrating that, with sufficient will, attitudes can be changed." — Ted Evans, the new secretary to the Treasury.

Joking?

Britain's just sacked chancellor of the exchequer Norman Lamont "compounded his problems with voters by joking that he got confused by figures, particularly threes and fives". — Sydney Morning Herald, May 28.

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