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The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers QUOTES

The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers QUOTES

1 " ...the opportunity for overthrowing capitalism has passed – Labor governments are the hope of the world.” From that time his commitment to the ALP was unquestioned. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

2 " There is an understandable aversion to risk, and a reluctance to plan too far ahead: the modern electorate wants instant gratification and simplistic, populist solutions. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

3 " The family was serious about education; after dinner, Fred was known to issue volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica to his children and guests for a little light reading. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

4 " Reminded that the Commonwealth was already involved in pre-school and university education, Chifley replied: “That’s different – they’re for kids before they’ve got souls and after they’ve lost them. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

5 " Gough was a serious student but found time to gain a blue in rowing; he was later to say that the sport was an apt one for men in public life because you could face one way while going in the other. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

6 " He embraced political power not as an end in itself, but for what it could accomplish for the betterment of society; "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

7 " Yet if the Howard years changed little in the law, they had a huge effect on the culture. Most Australians certainly became wealthier, but in the process they became more materialistic and self-centred. Howard constantly held up the ideal of mateship, but in practice he was much more concerned with individuals taking responsibility for themselves than in fostering genuine co-operation within communities, let alone in a wider international context. Indeed, much of his political success derived from setting groups against each other, from bolstering fear and loathing. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers

8 " Gorton flu” quickly became a euphemism for pissed as a parrot. "

― , The Good, the Bad and the Unlikely: Australia's Prime Ministers