Top 100 Tony Abbott Quotes
#1. The Australian people expect the Government to govern, they don't expect it to make excuses.
Tony Abbott
#2. I think that it's high time that the Prime Minister stopped making excuses for bad policy and started listening to the forgotten families of Australia.
Tony Abbott
#3. I'm not really managing the work-life balance, I'm just accepting that the work increases and the ordinary life has to decrease when you're the prime minister.
Tony Abbott
#4. I am in favour of the notion of Australia as an immigrant society.
Tony Abbott
#5. If people are going to do things which have certain consequences that they would rather avoid, they should do whatever they need to avoid the consequences.
Tony Abbott
#6. The media - and I'm not blaming them - obviously like to seize on the differences between people and, sure, there are some senior members of the government who are in a slightly different philosophical space to mine. But do not underestimate the substantial single-mindedness of this government.
Tony Abbott
#7. The climate change argument is absolute crap
Tony Abbott
#8. You cannot win an election without a fight.
Tony Abbott
#9. Faith is important to me. It's important to millions of Australians. It helps to shape who I am. It helps to shape my values. But it must never, never dictate my politics.
Tony Abbott
#10. I think that political marriages are subject to more strain than most precisely because of the nature of politics.
Tony Abbott
#11. You know what it's like - you see someone on the train screaming awful, racist things and think, 'How can I protect this person's right to free speech?
Tony Abbott
#12. I think that the best things that governments can do for productivity is not whack on new taxes and, if we can get institutions like schools and hospitals functioning better, well that's obviously good for the overall productiveness of our society.
Tony Abbott
#13. I want to make it clear that I do not judge or condemn any woman who has had an abortion, but every abortion is a tragedy and up to 100,000 abortions a year is this generation's legacy of unutterable shame.
Tony Abbott
#14. We have already provided a strong humanitarian response to the problems in the Middle East and that response will be stronger within coming days.
Tony Abbott
#15. I instinctively try to protect people from filth.
Tony Abbott
#16. I am not being negative, I am simply being factual when I say Kevin Rudd is the best friend the people smugglers have ever had
Tony Abbott
#17. We are looking at what more we can do. As well as a strong security response we need a strong humanitarian one.
Tony Abbott
#18. Even potential human life needs to be treated with great respect.
Tony Abbott
#19. I think leadership is knowing what you want to achieve and then purposefully and sensibly taking steps to achieve it, remembering always that you have got to bring people with you if you are seeking to be a successful political leader.
Tony Abbott
#20. When the world is in trouble, Australia responds. Australia is a good, global citizen.
Tony Abbott
#21. I don't think that my particular religious convictions should be held against me in this campaign any more than the Prime Minister's lack of convictions should be held against her.
Tony Abbott
#22. This is a government which is proposing to put at risk our manufacturing industry, to penalise struggling families, to make a tough situation worse for millions of households right around Australia. And for what? To make not a scrap of difference to the environment any time in the next 1000 years.
Tony Abbott
#23. I think there is no doubt that the advent of 24/7 news channels, which are voracious in their demand for constant new content, has accelerated the political process. The rise of social media, in addition to talkback, I think has intensified the political process.
Tony Abbott
#24. A government that says what it means, and means what it says.
Tony Abbott
#25. I do not regard myself as a Christian politician. I regard myself as a politician who just happens to think religion matters. I would be appalled, absolutely appalled, to think religion drove anyone's politics in a secular democracy like ours.
Tony Abbott
#26. I am a model of positivity compared to the kinds of vitriol, the kinds of destructive criticisms that Labor members of parliament have been making of each other.
Tony Abbott
#27. The only party which is going to increase taxes after the election is the Labor Party.
Tony Abbott
#28. If we're honest, most of us would accept that a bad boss is a little bit like a bad father or a bad husband ... you find that he tends to do more good than harm. He might be a bad boss but at least he's employing someone while he is in fact a boss.
Tony Abbott
#29. I'm not saying that people on welfare don't contribute in their own way, but as many as possible should be encouraged to be economically active as well as socially and culturally active.
Tony Abbott
#30. We will act to build a better world. We always have, we always will. We will act to lend a helping hand, not just here but wherever we humanly can.
Tony Abbott
#31. Prima facie, every estate, whether given by will or otherwise, is supposed to be beneficial to the party to whom it is so given.
Tony Abbott
#32. As with public hospitals, better public schools are likely to emerge when local teachers and parents have more say over how their schools are run. It's especially important to give parents a direct say in the running of schools rather than just an advisory role. Even
Tony Abbott
#33. Voluntary paid maternity leave: yes; compulsory paid maternity leave: over this Government's dead body, frankly. It just won't happen.
Tony Abbott
#34. While I think men and women are equal, they are also different and I think it's inevitable and I don't think it's a bad thing at all that we always have, say, more women doing things like physiotherapy and an enormous number of women simply doing housework.
Tony Abbott
#35. I can't promise that I won't continue to embarrass people.
Tony Abbott
#36. I understand that government should live within its means, value the money it holds in trust from you the taxpayer, avoid waste and, above all else, observe the first maxim of good government: namely, do no avoidable harm.
Tony Abbott
#37. I have close family members as well as lots of close friends who are gay. Many of them strongly support gay marriage.
Tony Abbott
#38. We shouldn't be willy-nilly creating potential human life just to satisfy the urges of the scientific community.
Tony Abbott
#39. My mum and mad were both very generous, encouraging parents.
Tony Abbott
#40. I think there does need to be give and take on both sides, and this idea that sex is kind of a woman's right to absolutely withhold, just as the idea that sex is a man's right to demand I think they are both they both need to be moderated, so to speak
Tony Abbott
#41. When politicians complain about the media, it strikes me as resembling footballers complaining about the umpire.
Tony Abbott
#42. The basic problem is that most Western countries have privatised the next generation. Having children tends to be regarded as a personal choice rather than a social good.
Tony Abbott
#43. We have a strong and credible broadband policy because the man who has devised it, the man who will implement it virtually invented the Internet in this country. Thank you so much, Malcolm Turnbull.
Tony Abbott
#44. I think anything which improves services is in principle a good thing.
Tony Abbott
#46. It's very easy for Australians living in big cities to either romanticise or demonise the situation in Aboriginal places - to kind of look at things through the 'noble innocents' prism or through the 'chronically dysfunctional' prism, and I suspect that is so often the case.
Tony Abbott
#47. Part of my role, I suppose, is to run government business in the House of Representatives, and try to ensure that people know exactly what's going on in the Chamber is an important part of that.
Tony Abbott
#48. Whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.
Tony Abbott
#49. A presumption of any fact is, properly, an inferring of that fact from other facts that are known; it is an act of reasoning; and much of human knowledge on all subjects is derived from this source.
Tony Abbott
#50. There is much to be said for an emissions trading scheme. It was, after all, the mechanism for emission reduction ultimately chosen by the Howard government.
Tony Abbott
#51. Putting labels on people is so counter-productive. Most of us on some issues could be considered conservative, on other issues could be considered progressive, on other issues might be thought of as being moderate, on other issues might be thought of as being rather forthright.
Tony Abbott
#52. There will be no surprises, there will be no excuses, we will do what we've said we will do.
Tony Abbott
#53. If we boost productivity, we can improve economic growth.
Tony Abbott
#54. There will be no overall increase in the tax burden whatsoever.
Tony Abbott
#55. I've always been very wary of debates involving women.
Tony Abbott
#56. A government that understands the limits of power as well as its potential.
Tony Abbott
#57. We are about getting things done. We are not about the blame game. We are not about making excuses.
Tony Abbott
#58. There is one fundamental message that we want to go out from this place to every nook and cranny of our country: There should be no new tax collection without an election.
Tony Abbott
#59. I want to be a very good friend to Indonesia, but there are some things which are non-negotiable. Border protection is just non-negotiable. Maintaining a strong security network is just non-negotiable. I think the Indonesians understand that.
Tony Abbott
#60. There are tens, perhaps hundreds of millions of people living in poverty and danger who might readily seek to enter a Western country if the opportunity is there.
Tony Abbott
#61. People who have put money aside on the basis of a certain set of rules shouldn't have that money raided just because government has got a problem.
Tony Abbott
#62. Coal is good for humanity, coal is good for prosperity, coal is an essential part of our economic future, here in Australia, and right around the world.
Tony Abbott
#63. Certainly, my uni days involved some statements that I wouldn't make today.
Tony Abbott
#64. Today, we have got more excuses from the government.
Tony Abbott
#65. It is very important for our long-term economic future that the relationship with Japan, Korea and China, who are our three biggest trading partners, be ever stronger.
Tony Abbott
#66. A bit of body contact never hurt anyone.
Tony Abbott
#67. We've got to get the system right. That's why we've got this root-and-branch reform under way.
Tony Abbott
#68. The problem with the Australian practice of abortion is that an objectively grave matter has been reduced to a question of the mother's convenience.
Tony Abbott
#69. The sky is where mathematics and magic become one.
Tony Abbott
#70. No one, however smart, however well-educated, however experienced, is the suppository of all wisdom.
Tony Abbott
#71. Mates help each other; they do not tax each other.
Tony Abbott
#72. I want to run a government, Barnaby wants to be part of a government, which is characterized by the motto if you like, no surprises, no excuses. That will be the motto of an incoming Coalition government. No surprises, no excuses.
Tony Abbott
#73. We are sticking with the plan. We have a plan to get taxes down, to get regulation down, to get productivity up, to create jobs, to reduce taxes, to boost prosperity. The plan is working and we are sticking with it.
Tony Abbott
#74. I try to treat people as people and not put them in pigeonholes.
Tony Abbott
#75. I don't think it's a very Christian thing to come in by the back door rather than the front door,
Tony Abbott
#76. Another big problem with any Australian emissions reduction scheme is that it would not make a material difference to atmospheric carbon concentrations unless the big international polluters had similar schemes.
Tony Abbott
#77. I just think that this whole issue of creating potential human life, not to give life, but to give the scientists a bit more of a leg-up, is fraught with danger.
Tony Abbott
#78. We are naturally reluctant as a peace-loving people to reach out to far-away conflicts but, as we know, this conflict has been reaching out to us for months now.
Tony Abbott
#79. There will be no surprises and no excuses from a Coalition government, Barrie.
Tony Abbott
#80. To be sociable, I puffed on a marijuana cigarette, but I didn't inhale ... I just hate the idea of drawing smoke into my lungs.
Tony Abbott
#81. The Liberal Party has dealt with the spill motion and now this matter is behind us, we think that when you elect a government, when you elect a prime minister, you deserve to keep that government and that prime minister until you have a chance to change your mind.
Tony Abbott
#82. And a government that accepts that it will be judged more by its deeds than by its mere words.
Tony Abbott
#83. Now if you are condemned to life on welfare, I'm not so sure that being in a bigger welfare village is that much better than being in a smaller welfare village.
Tony Abbott
#84. I feel a little uncomfortable at being asked the sorts of questions that other Catholics in public life tend not to be asked.
Tony Abbott
#85. The smart way to improve broadband is not to junk the existing network but to make the most of it. It's to let a competitive market deliver the speeds that people need at an affordable price with government improving infrastructure in the areas where market competition won't deliver it.
Tony Abbott
#86. I'm confident that there are plenty of people who have the strength of character and the presence of mind to warn me of difficulties and alert me to opportunities.
Tony Abbott
#87. The Australian public are very fair and they are always prepared to give the leader of a major political party a fair go.
Tony Abbott
#88. I want to see an end to sovereign risk questions over Australia.
Tony Abbott
#89. I think that marriage is, dare I say it, between a man and a woman, hopefully for life and there are all sorts of other relationships which should be acknowledged and recognised, but I don't know that they can be recognised as marriage.
Tony Abbott
#90. There's a sense in which politicians can never work hard enough.
Tony Abbott
#91. I am, as you know, hugely unconvinced by the so-called settled science on climate change.
Tony Abbott
#92. Our police, our hard-working police, that our extraordinarily committed and dedicated military personnel, I'm really pleased that they are getting a good paid parental leave scheme.
Tony Abbott
#93. If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax.
Tony Abbott
#94. We are going to be a government of no surprises and no excuses; a government which keeps its commitments and a government which is straight and candid with the Australian people and that's what we intend to do.
Tony Abbott
#95. Australia would play its role in taking displaced people from the Syrian conflict.
Tony Abbott
#96. What the housewives of Australia need to understand as they do the ironing is that if they get it done commercially it's going to go up in price and their own power bills when they switch the iron on are going to go up.
Tony Abbott
#97. Why isn't the fact that 100,000 women choose to end their pregnancies regarded as a national tragedy approaching the scale, say, of Aboriginal life expectancy being 20 years less than that of the general community?
Tony Abbott
#98. We've got to maintain freedom of navigation of the seas and in the air.
Tony Abbott
#99. I do enjoy exercise, not because I am an exercise junkie but because it's terrific stress release.
Tony Abbott
#100. Three days ago, Dana had been kidnapped by the Norse god Loki and trapped in the Greek Underworld.
Tony Abbott
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