Tony Abbott

Tony Abbott (born 1957-11-04), is the current Leader of the Opposition in the Australian House of Representatives and federal leader of the centre-right Liberal Party of Australia.

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• 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.
  • Panel discussion "Religion, Sex and Politics" on abc.com.au (19 March 2009)

• I know politicians are going to be judged on everything they say but sometimes in the heat of discussion you go a little bit further than you would if it was an absolutely calm, considered, prepared, scripted remark. The statements that need to be taken absolutely as gospel truth are those carefully prepared scripted remarks.
  • Quoted in "Don't believe everything I say - Tony Abbott" on news.com.au (18 May 2010)

• The argument [behind climate change] is absolute crap. However, the politics of this are tough for us. Eighty per cent of people believe climate change is a real and present danger
  • Quoted in "Town of Beaufort changed Tony Abbott's view on climate changet" in the Australian (12 December 2009)

• We can’t conclusively say whether man-made carbon dioxide emissions are contributing to climate change
  • Quoted in in the speech "A Realist’s Approach to Climate Change" (27 July 2009)

• I am, as you know, hugely unconvinced by the so-called settled science on climate change.
  • Quoted in quoted on the "ABC 7.30 Report" (27 July 2009)

• It seems that, notwithstanding the dramatic increases in manmade CO2 emissions over the last decade, the world's warming has stopped.
  • Quoted in "2009 Australia's second warmest year ever, according to Bureau of Meteorology figures" in the Herald Sun (5 January 2010)

• 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.
  • Quoted in in the speech "A Realist’s Approach to Climate Change" (27 July 2009)

• I won't be rushing out to get my daughters vaccinated [for cervical cancer], maybe that's because I'm a cruel, callow, callous, heartless bastard but, look, I won't be
  • Quoted in "I could be seen as 'cruel' on Gardasil: Abbott" in the Australian (09 November 2006)

• Abortion is the easy way out. It’s hardly surprising that people should choose the most convenient exit from awkward situations.
  • Quoted in "Rate of abortion high-lights our moral failings" on www.tonyabbott.com.au (17 March 2004)

• It would be folly to expect that women would ever approach equal representation in a large number of areas simply because their aptitudes, their abilities and interests are different for physiological reasons
  • Quoted in "Tony Abbott in 'dark ages' on women" by : Jenny Macklin in the Australian (16 March 2010)

• 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
  • Quoted in "Rudd hands PM a crucial lifeline" by : Laurie Oakes in the Herald Sun (06 August 2010)

• There may not be a great job for [aboriginal people] but whatever there is, they just have to do it... And if it's picking up rubbish around the community, it just has to be done."
  • Quoted in "Aboriginal people must get jobs, says Opposition leader Tony Abbott" in the Australian (30 June 2010)

• The poor will always be with us
  • Quoted in "Bible bashing the homeless, Abbott style " in response to whether a government under his direction would continue with the Rudd government's goal of halving homelessness by 2020 in the Brisbane Times (30 June 2010)

• Victory is within our ready grasp...We are in reach of a famous victory
  • "Abbott's 'famous victory' remark ... was it gospel or not?" in The Age(23 June 2010)

• When you are challenging the young, they can come back at you with language of tremendous power and they are no respecters of sacred cows, you know, the young. There's nothing politically correct about the average young Australian when it comes to use of language.
  • "Abbott OK being a 'lame, gay, churchy loser'" in news.com.au from all angles (28 August 2009)

• There are essentially two types of conservative: those who fear change and instinctively resist it, and those who respect the society that's made them and want the future to reflect the best aspects of the past.
  • Battlelines (2009)