Loose cannons

Issue 

Going out of business

"Universities are the absolute foundation upon which all scientific output is based, but it is almost as if the government has announced a going out of business sale." — Young Australian of the year Dr Bryan Gaensler, suggesting he might stay on in the US when he completes his science scholarship there.

End of history — 1

"The West has no idea what to do with these countries [of eastern Europe]. Our people do not live well; unemployment is rising; democracy is in crisis." — Poland's ex-president Lech Walesa on the transition to capitalism.

End of history — 2

"The Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland are now more corrupt than several African and Latin American countries, according to independent assessments by Transparency International." — London Telegraph.

Efficiency

"Efficiencies only work if you reduce bed numbers." — Mick Reid, director-general of NSW Health, on the state's hospitals.

Intelligence

"It's like something from an Austin Powers episode." — A Canadian MP, after a member of the Canadian Intelligence Security Service left a top-secret report on operational plans in the back of a car. Thieves robbed the car and, disappointed with the haul, threw the plans in a dumpster.

On side

"Bracks wants to stay on side with us. Removing Hulls was a deliberate signal to business." — A "senior business player", quoted in the November 24 Sydney Morning Herald, after Victorian Labor MP Rob Hulls, who in opposition pursued irregularities in the licensing of the Crown casino, was given a different portfolio in the new government.

No advice

"I think Bracks has enough to do without taking my advice on the allocation of portfolios." — Graham Richardson, lobbyist for the Packers, the current owners of Crown, denying he'd asked Bracks to shift Hulls.

Walks like a duck, quacks like a duck ...

"When I see Mr Ruddock talking on television about this issue, he looks and sounds like somebody from One Nation." — One Nation vice-president David Oldfield on the federal government's refugee policy.

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