loose cannons
Please explain
"We're going through hard times but like a piece of steel when you temper it, every time you heat it up and hammer it, it becomes harder." — One Nation Senator Len Harris quoted in Time magazine, May 1.
Sounds familiar
"If costs get too high, we are competing with India, Indonesia, Bangladesh, China, and business will simply go there." — Roger Tan, secretary-general of the Garment Manufacturers Association, rejecting Cambodian garment workers' demand that the minimum wage be raised to US$70 a month from its current US$40, and that the workweek be reduced from 48 hours to 44.
Postmodern party
"The Democrats are the quiet achievers of Australia's political landscape and have done so without the support of unions, big business and massive contributions. Ours had been an achievement of ideas." — Australian Democrats' media release on the 23rd anniversary of the party's formation last week.
Above the law
The Australian justice system will be "rendered useless" if disaffected people can take legal action against judges and magistrates. — Douglas Meagher, QC, for the NT government in its attempt in the Supreme Court last week to stop the sacking of Chief Magistrate Hugh Bradley, who was improperly appointed by the government in 1998.
Nothing + nothing = surplus
"This is better than selling sand to the Arabs or ice to the Eskimos ... We are really selling nothing here." — Australian Communications Authority's head of radio spectrum marketing, Ian Hayne, on the government's sale in February of the 1.8GHz spectrum used for mobile phones. The government now plans to sell the 2GHz spectrum, (for the third generation of mobile phones), thereby ensuring a budget surplus in the next financial year.