Exemplary
"This is a great example of what government can achieve when we work in partnership with the private sector to create greatly enhanced spaces and facilities for the community." — NSW Labor deputy premier Andrew Refshauge after chairperson of Sydney's Darling Harbour Authority Gerry Gleeson resigned his directorship of Amalgamated Holdings just 24 hours before the company received official approval for a $1 million development at Darling Harbour.
Predicting a divorce
"There is a honeymoon period at the beginning. The government will never have greater legitimacy than it has today in the eyes of the Indonesian people to make tough choices." — US assistant secretary of state for East Asia, Stanley Roth, urging President Abdurrahman Wahid to speed up the austerity drive.
The bright side
"... some of [Telstra's] other initiatives like using local people for building, owning and maintaining infrastructure is very positive." — Minister for communications, Senator Richard Alston commenting on Teltra's announcement of a restructure which includes shedding up to 16,000 jobs.
Or just plain wrong
"That's the dilemma. Public opinion, including the media, has been so against the military, against General Wiranto, against the whole Indonesian position over East Timor that it is very difficult now to get a fair trial ... It's a bit unlucky for General Wiranto. He was probably the right person at the wrong time at the wrong place." — Indonesia's new defence minister Juwono Sudarsono.
He won't
"You don't want a child to grow up thinking that they have so much money that they don't need to work hard." — Naveen Jain, CEO of InfoSpace.com, explaining to the Wall Street Journal why he had answered "No" to his son's question about whether they were rich after he noticed that his dad was 12th on Fortune magazine's list of the richest young executives with a net worth of $861 million.
History lesson
"Why did the Soviet Union break up? Because things were allowed to happen: laxness." — Russia's non-lax prime minister and acting president, Vladimir Putin.