Loose cannons

Issue 

Promises, promises

"What we are seeking is public declarations from the CEOs that they will comply." — David Cousins, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission's GST commissioner, on preventing companies from profiteering when the GST begins.

The GST?

"Where the money is going to come from is not an issue. The minister believes money will be available." — Spokesperson for Peter Reith on the minister's support for a government-funded scheme to pay sacked employees' entitlements not paid by their former employers.

Their boss tells them

"The job of bank economists is not to predict or to argue what should happen, but rather to predict as best they can what will." — ANZ bank's chief economist, Saul Eslake, responding to the PM's criticism that banks are "talking up" interest rates.

Can't do without them

"[The economy will] grind to a halt, because most business people will be in jail." — Kwik Kian Gie, Indonesia's minister for economic affairs, on what could happen if the government prosecutes those guilty of corruption.

If only

"[Former NSW environment minister Paul] Landa pursued extension of parklands so ruthlessly that some younger caucus members were heard to complain that he was leaving nothing for any future occupant of the office to achieve." — NSW Premer Bob Carr, writing in 1980 as a journalist for the Bulletin.

Back to reality

"A year [after entering NSW parliament in 1983], Carr began dismembering Landa's reforms." — Sydney Morning Herald, January 29, on Premier Carr's anti-environment crusade.

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