Supportive
"Those people, including senior Federal Labor ministers, have all been very supportive, many expressing their disgust at the attacks on me and urging me not to resign as Deputy President [of the Senate]." — Wife-basher Senator Noel Crichton-Browne in a letter to Liberal Party members.
Competition policy
"In St Petersburg one hardened criminal said that he could not remember a single case of contract murder which came from gangsters — always from business people. 'They are ready to cut each other's throats under any pretext', he said." — Business World Weekly, Moscow, May 15.
Education
"... what we need is an understanding of violence in the new economics of Russia ... I would advocate the creation of an agency that would help mediate and resolve business conflicts and would find ways to educate the business community not to adopt violent methods..." — Letter to the Moscow Times, March 25.
Now he tells us
"Mr Keating said the Accord originally involved the ACTU constituency having to give away the high wage share it had gained through the '70s, and business getting the benefit in terms of profits." — Financial Review report on the PM's May 17 speech to a National Farmers Federation luncheon.
Commitments
"If a business party joins [the Accord], there has got to be commitments too ... when we have mooted these things in the past, they have never come to much because the business community has never believed it was a principal party to the point where it was actually giving something away or providing something." — Keating in his NFF speech.