Australian Quotes

The Australian people expect the Government to govern, they don’t expect it to make excuses.

It’s the best feeling ever: the adrenalin, the extra boost, the support you get from the very passionate Australian Open crowd is amazing.

I played football when I was little. I didn’t want to be an actress at all, I wanted to be a majorette in an Australian circus. That was my ambition.

If we are to celebrate the giants in Australian public life, then Robert Garran must be among them. A lawyer and passionate advocate of Federation, Garran was one of several hands that drafted our constitution.

And currently, there are four to five new works in the pipeline for upcoming celebrations such as the Sydney 2000 Olympics, Australian Federation, my 50th Birthday, and Sydney Dance Company’s 25th Anniversary.

My current fear is that the message being sent by the level of vitriol surrounding Gillard’s flawed leadership (but tell me whose wasn’t flawed) is being heard by Australian women and girls loud and clear. And the message is: ‘Don’t aspire to high office,sweetheart, because we’ll flay you alive.’

Many years ago, a large American shoe company sent two sales reps to different parts of the Australian outback. A while later, the company received a telegram from each. The first said, ‘No business here – the natives don’t wear shoes.’ The second said, ‘Great opportunity here – the natives don’t wear shoes.’

For the young, and those newly introduced to Australia, milkbars represented an opportunity to dip a toe in the water when it came to discovering Australian food culture at a grass roots level.

Well Australia’s been in Afghanistan from the get go, way back in 2001, but we have been resolute throughout and with support from both sides of Australian politics.

If Australia finds it has a strong Australian dollar, and it has higher unemployment, then it would have to respond, and that would either be by increasing domestic demand or by weakening its own currency.

The quoll is like the Australian version of the honey badger. It’s a little mongrel that gets around and is pretty fierce and will take on a few things. You don’t want to get that in your campsite.

The Australian accent is sort of like going down a step in smartness, you could say, because you guys pronounce things as they’re spelled. We add and abbreviate stuff.

There are certain situations, when you’re in America, when people understand you better without an Australian accent.

I’m never there enough to really keep up with what’s going on in the Australian film industry. I just try and be part of it as much as I can.

I don’t want to see the Australian players not focus on their preparation and training.

A lot of old Australian bakeries used a lot of trans-fats but I just wanted to use quality ingredients – butter, cream, custard – to produce a high-quality product.

Mind you, I live in an area of Atlanta that is nearly 88% black. But in six days in and around Melbourne, I saw maybe three people of African origin and maybe one easily identifiable Australian aborigine.

I’d accomplished everything I had set out to do – winning the French and Australian Opens, the Olympic gold medal and the Davis Cup. So I said to myself: ‘Why don’t you try another year and see if you can enjoy your tennis like you did once?’ And I’ve been doing it.

I grew up on cricket and I think Australian kids are getting so Americanized, you know?

I feel like, at times, I’ve been seen as the dirty stepchild of Australian comedy. I think there’s a few people out there that are pissed off that I made it big overseas.

Even Australians who take a very, very hard line about asylum seekers – and unfortunately there are more than I would like to think – are probably a bit uncomfortable with the kind of treatment that has been meted out to children in detention by the Australian Government, in their name.

I cooked, which was pretty un-Australian. And I didn’t really like Australian music… I preferred the New Romantics and punk and stuff like that.

I have travelled enough internationally to know and accept the reality that, overwhelmingly, people are well disposed to Australia but in truth know very little about it. In particular, people know hardly anything about Australian politics.

I’m obviously coming out of the Australian summer with amazing momentum, knowing I can pretty much hang in there with anybody and even beat some of the best players. So for me, it’s definitely a good feeling, I think.

I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn’t like them but they’ll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.

No diplomatic intervention will ever be made by any government that I lead in support of any individual terrorist’s life. We have only indicated in the past, and will maintain a policy in the future, of intervening diplomatically in support of Australian nationals who face capital sentences abroad.

If you’re a single Sheila and you’re trying to find an Australian bloke, you duck off down there to Australia. You go to the Red Centre: you’ll find there’s a few shearers, a few stockmen, and there you will find an Australian bloke.

Backyards are as Australian as the Hills Hoists they host, and as individual as those who work and play in them. Whether haven, pantry or playground, they all tell a story.

We believe in the Australian promise; that if you work hard, you won’t be left behind.

It’s really actually been pretty shoddy and appalling, the amount of local content, Australian drama, on ABC TV.

The Australian sees itself not as a mere newspaper, but as a player in the game of national politics, calling upon the vast resources of the Murdoch empire and the millions of words it has available to it to try to make and unmake governments.

The only problem I have with American money is that it’s all kind of the same color, so I’m always having to look. Whereas with Australian money, you have purple, blue, yellow… We keep it nice and simple.

No one knows who I am in Australia. They don’t even know I am Australian, because ‘The Secret Circle’ is on in Australia, and I’m sure everyone’s like, ‘Oh, she’s American. She’s from, like, North Carolina.’ Like, nobody knows me in Australia, I’m just telling you.

Australian troops had, at Milne Bay, inflicted on the Japanese their first undoubted defeat on land. Some of us may forget that, of all the allies, it was the Australians who first broke the invincibility of the Japanese army.

Because I like theatre and I love a challenge. With ‘ZEBRA!’ I’ve found a new Australian play where I can create a character first – that’s what I live to do.

Although the rudiments of snobbery are there, its finer developments are basically alien to the Australian soul – that is, if Australians have a soul; many people believe that they are too matter-of-fact and down-to-earth to have such fancy commodities.

There are many possible approaches to Australian garden design, and they all reflect the designer’s individual response to gardens. For my part, I love all things most gardeners abhor… I like the whole thing to be as wild as possible, so that you have to fight your way through in places.

Music is my number one, it’s my life, it’s my everything. I’m enjoying challenging myself; I want to raise the bar and set a new standard for Australian pop artists.

I don’t see why, if you look at how the Australian culture and psyche is, that we can’t be amongst the most generous, from the grassroots up, nations in the world.

Every impression that I do is just a terrible variation on an awful Bill Cosby impression. You’re doing an Australian accent, but it’s just Australian Bill Cosby; or that’s just British Bill Cosby; that’s Pirate Bill Cosby.

I think I should be described as ‘bi’ – not bisexual, because I’m not – I’m gay – but ‘binational’ because I retain British nationality, and I add to it being Australian, which is like having your cake and eating it.

I asked many friends if Australian anti-intellectualism was still a living force and they all told me it was. If you are above average intelligence, hide this embarrassing fact.

I’ve always noted with some awe the reading habits of the Australian public. Australians read more newspapers and magazines per head of population than almost any other country in the world.

I think that’s the way we play our best cricket, when we’re aggressive, we’re in the fight together, we’re hunting as a pack as one and we’re working for each other and backing our mates up on the field. That’s part of being an Australian, in my opinion.

But I don’t think of myself as a foreigner or a Frenchman! I just think of myself as a director. Whether I’m French or Australian or whatever, it’s really not important.

The Australian tour was good for us; it was ideal preparation for us.

Countries get one chance in history of putting into place a savings retirement scheme on the scale of the Australian superannuation system.

Mum told me stories about her time in the Women’s Royal Navy, and about her dad, who had died before I was born – he’d been sent to Australia as a child, then joined the Australian Army in the First World War and fought at Gallipoli.

I’m Australian. I’m assimilated. I was born here – how ocker do I have to be?

Country of Origin labelling is something that consumers really want, and I think it’s critical to support Australian farmers.

Australians just don’t see that many Australian films, but it’s also our responsibility as filmmakers and the responsibility of the funding bodies to remember that audiences want to be entertained, and people are entertained in lots of different ways.

‘Blind Date’ was based on an Australian show called ‘Perfect Match’, which I first saw when I was on tour there. And I couldn’t understand why it wasn’t on British T.V.

Being in Australia makes me happy. My partner is Australian, and my home is in Australia, and it’s ridiculous not to be Australian – it’s a logical step to take.

I celebrated my 18th birthday in Japan, which was quite memorable; I was quite fascinated by the different traditions and the culture; it was so completely different to Australian culture.

Australia’s beautiful, but I’m not too into Australian culture.

An Australian actor wouldn’t have the experience to feel how it is to be in Australia as a European.

It’s an Australian thing to be dismissive. We find that endearing. Americans don’t. They believe what you say.

The Australian public are very fair and they are always prepared to give the leader of a major political party a fair go.

It’s unfortunate, I’ve been the victim of some Australian press.

I did not want to put myself on the line, as an Australian playing Britain’s greatest comic actor. The fans of Sellers are obsessive, possessive – and aggressive. I did not want to risk their anger – or my own reputation.

‘Bloody’ has now become an important indicator of Australianness and of cultural values such as friendliness, informality, laid-backness, mateship – and perhaps even the Australian dislike and distrust of verbal and intellectual graces

It is much easier for me to define what makes a novel French or Russian, but defining the characteristics of an Australian novel are difficult for me as it is all too close – I can’t see the woods for the trees.

I’m in fact Australian but my mother’s English so I’ve got no problem playing a domineering English woman.

I think stupid people are surprised that I’m Australian. It’s a small-minded; we live in a global community, but I suppose some people still are small-minded.

I used to have 30 different species of tarantulas, as well as two Australian scorpions that are considered the deadliest in the world. If stung by one, a person would die in 30 minutes. But when I had kids I had to get rid of them, of course. Those were intense!

Sport is an important part of the Australian psyche. Anybody who thinks that sport is not part of the fabric of Australian life misunderstands this country quite dramatically.

In primary school, I was bored witless by Australian history.

Spiders frighten me. In response to the spider alerts for Australia, please can the Australian government remove all spiders from Australia and blow them into outer space.

With the Australian Government paying more of the hospital bills, it will have the incentive to make sure people are treated through less expensive and more appropriate primary care services.

If I am wrong and you are right then the democratic process of the Australian community will vindicate you and condemn me.

I’ve been a Nick Cave fan since the early ’80s when he was part of The Birthday Party thing singing Australian self-destructive rock band and I’ve always followed his work and loved it.

If you wish to understand me at all (and to write an autobiography is only to open a window into one’s heart) you must understand first and foremost, that I am an Australian.

I call on the Australian Government to set out the conditions upon which they will provide a taxpayer funded backing for wholesale term funding for Australian deposit taking institutions. I call on the Government it make clear the conditions upon which taxpayer funds will be used in this way.

Everyone tells me I have a funny accent. It’s because I copy people. I learned English at school but have best friends who are French, Australian, English and American; a very weird mix.

My partner of 45 years is Australian, and a big part of her character is that marvellous quality of irony which Aussies possess. I relish their humour and sense of fairness.

But I did a lot of boxing and I was captain of an Australian surf club.

I love to play Australian Open.

Our South Australian farmers left their holdings in the hands of their wives and children too young to take with them, but almost all of them returned to grow grain and produce to send to Victoria.

I was born in North London, migrated to Australia when I was four. So when I first came to Australia people saw me as a little English boy. Over the years that feeling of being a little English boy diminished and I felt much more Australian.

It has been said that the Opening Ceremony of the Olympic Games is something that an athlete will remember for the rest of their life. It is true. That moment when you walk into the Olympic Stadium as part of the Australian Olympic Team, is a moment that I will never forget.

When I was 18 years old, I had never before seen Australian film on the big screen.

The newspapers were against me. They were telling me that the Australian dream was a home. But that dream became worse and worse as they had to live further away from the city. My dream became better as we could build higher and higher.

I just wanted to do this all Australian film and we didn’t want to give creative control to overseas ’cause whoever comes on my sets, whether you’re sweeping the floor or an actor, it doesn’t matter who comes up with the ideas, it’s a collaboration.

I’m a very loyal, parochial Australian and I can never say we’re going to lose a series.

The Australian cast of mind is not something I would want to be without – and I couldn’t be without. It’s not a choice.

We know that a large majority of the Australian society is extremely comfortable with a multicultural society, that we accept that living in a democracy means having a freedom to practise your religion within the limits of the law.

I would rather stare at the wall for half an hour than watch an episode of any of the 53,801 Australian soap operas now cluttering up UK TV.

QVB have a long history of supporting Australian talent.

All the arts are predominantly national, and therefore the Australian Film Commission should be funding us. The battle gets more and more vicious each year.

The suburb was the major element of Australian society.

I’m in love with the city. You can impress an Australian with a city, but you can’t impress them with a beach.

It’s just so funny that when I was growing up, I was very much of an Australian. I just thought it was funny that there was this war, like, ‘No, she’s ours, she’s practically a Miss Australia.’ But I am a Miss Philippines.

Being an Australian that’s been No. 1 in the world back home playing in Australia, that’s a pretty cool moment to have.

My dad served in the Australian Navy until I was a toddler.

For me, being Australian is having the opportunity to be your best. This country, this state, gives us every opportunity we could hope for.

The greatest stain upon this great Australian nation’s character, without any question, is the great gaps that exist between our Aboriginal brothers and sisters in terms of their health, their education, their living conditions, their incarceration rates and life expectancy. It’s a great stain.

It’s beyond belief that any Australian could be so stupid as to carry drugs into any country in Asia.

The scariness of manhood to males may be symbolically seen in the many stories of indigenous Australian boys who ran away and hid in the bush as the time of initiation approached.

Both my parents are English and came out to Australia in 1967. I was born the following year. My parents, and immigrants like them, were known as ‘ВЈ10 poms.’ Back then, the Australian government was trying to get educated British people and Canadians – to be honest, educated white people – to come and live in Australia.

It’s a huge honour to wear No 7 at Liverpool. I think about the legends: Dalglish, Keegan and that Australian guy.

I’m trying hard to keep my Australian accent. My mom would disown me if I didn’t.

I grew up listening to Nirvana and then went through some bad ’90s pop stuff – a lot of Australian one-hit wonders.

I’m an Australian, and when I grew up much of my influences were American – blues music and country music, all that sort of thing.

None of the serious maritime incidents I had to deal with as transport minister off the pristine Queensland or Western Australian coastline involved an Australian flagged and crewed vessel.

Now both my films have been number one at the Australian box office and it took about two years just to get the finance for this film, so if it’s hard for me then God help everyone else.

I carry my iPod everywhere. My favorite group is the John Butler Trio, an Australian jam band. The lead singer and guitarist writes amazing lyrics.

Yidaki didgeridoo has been used in every part of Australian regional culture, all around the country. It’s become a message stick for the survival of those people, for aboriginal people and aboriginal culture.

I’m not sure it’s affection for Australian or New Zealand films or not. I think it’s just that there’s something about ‘Wilderpeople’ that has really struck a chord.

I like to say that I do covers of my own songs. And I have about a dozen bands all over the world. That’s no exaggeration. I have a South African band, an Australian band, Swedish bands, English bands, American bands. They’re all notable musicians, too.

I’m not too fond of the typical Australian activities or culture. I’m not into surfing.

I started ice-skating when I was about 12 or 13 and I was selected in the Australian team for ice hockey. I met my wife at St Moritz Ice Skating about 1955.

Being Indigenous, I feel very proud being an Australian and there are so many stories I want to tell.

Not long ago, in an excruciatingly remote village in the Australian Outback, I was startled to see a bartender in a cowboy hat measuring out a classically proportioned French 75 – something he’d picked up on the Internet, he told me.

I liked Pat Cash, and I loved Mats Wilander. I went to the Australian Open with my parents, and I used to watch Wilander being cheered on by the Swedish fans, and with his game style being like mine, I drew comparisons with him.

I was born in Australia and am proud of my Australian provenance, but I am now an American. Like so many naturalized citizens, I felt that I was an American before I formally became one.

I’m a proud Australian, a very, very proud Australian.

I live in a town called Beerwah, right in the middle of Australia Zoo. It’s not hustle and bustle and busy, so that’s helpful. We travel all over the world, but I’ve always been able to come home and run around in the middle of the Australian outback.

I’ve got a good Barbarians squad including Australian backs who have played together. Gavin Henson would make a fool of himself if he was way off the pace. Not having made a tackle or played a game for so long beforehand would be a disadvantage. It would be ideal if he has a couple of games first, but who with?

Tender Mercies is a very low-budget film, but it was a huge budget compared to anything I had done in Australia. My fee for Tender Mercies was something like five times all of my Australian films combined.

For years I’ve wanted to write about the Australian countryside, but, like most Australians, I’ve only got a tourist’s knowledge of it. I thought that if I disobeyed that basic rule of writing – write about what you know – I’d write a thin and inauthentic book.

The concept of cancer immunotherapy was theoretically proposed by the Australian Nobel Laureate Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet over sixty years ago, and since then, a large number of people have tried to apply it, but without success.

I was talking to Australian press earlier, and they said: we never stopped playing you. I tended to forget about that. It brings a smile to your face that there is this continuing thing, that people like what you do.

I want to go to Australia so bad, do comedy there, and see the people there. It’s a great country. I have friends that are Australian that have told me all about it. I want to do comedy there.

Years later, when I was working as a trolley wally in a supermarket, I tackled the boredom by talking to the customers in as many different accents as I could manage. I started with one that I didn’t think would alert any suspicion – generic Asian – then moved on to Irish, Welsh, Australian and American.

I support all Australian films.

I’m in kind of a strange position – I have a strong Australian career and a strong British career. Then there’s the American career. For every movie I do here, I do two somewhere else. I bounce back and forth between the three places.

I think Australian food is probably some of the best in the world.

When British or Australian actors perform American characters, we laud them and talk about how great it is they are able to do this other accent that is not their own. Americans have different relationships with other accents.

I remember when I first came to America, nobody had a clue what a black Englishman was. I was either South African or Australian to them.

The IIconics are a feisty Australian duo who have been a team since they came to WWE. They’re masters on the microphone, and they’re willing to do whatever it takes to win!

As nations we should also commit afresh to righting past wrongs. In Australia we began this recently with the first Australians – the oldest continuing culture in human history. On behalf of the Australian Parliament, this year I offered an apology to indigenous Australians for the wrongs they had suffered in the past.

I think that Americans find the Australian humour and the energy of Australians very refreshing – we are quite self-deprecating, we’re light-hearted and can have a laugh.

I was elected by the Australian people to bring back a fair go for all Australians. I have given my absolute best to do that.

The Australian language is easier to learn than boat talk. It has a vocabulary of about six words.

In Australian culture, people are just more laid back, people aren’t as serious, they just take their time with things. It’s just like, whatever, if I don’t get it done I don’t get it done.

Making jokes is about the most wrong and stupid thing a bemused, middle-aged, white heterosexual Anglo Saxon sort of Celt Australian male can do these days.

I’ve known white Australian girls from wealthy families who were sent to posh private schools, who knew all of that stuff, and I think would recognise much in Jefferson’s book. What I related to most strongly was the sexism and misogyny Margo Jefferson had to battle.

If the Australian Government were to associate itself with the United States attack on Iraq, which was not sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, then we’d put this country at risk.

The concern is the Government is not coming clean and informing the Australian public of the assumptions that they have made to give rise to a $10.4 billion package.

I have so many fond memories of the Tied Test, and I can’t wait to come back to Brisbane. One thing that stands out is that both teams stayed at the same hotel. We got to know each other so well. Some of my best cricketing friends were in that Australian team.

They’re strange, the Aussies. Because if they like you, they say, ‘Oh, he’s an Aussie.’ And I keep saying, ‘I’m not, I’m from Preston.’ There’s nothing Australian about me. Don’t start claiming me just because I’ve got a job over here.

In terms of being Australian, I think a big part of it is the determination to prove yourself, just like Aussie actors.

In fact, in Parliament, I pointed out that Australians on average incomes would move into the second highest tax bracket in the next couple of years. That is going to slow down the Australian economy. It’s bad for households.

We were just four unknown, aspiring Australian musicians singing happy, uplifting, melodic and inspiring songs, and being true to ourselves.

The Australian approach to playing cricket in general is quite an aggressive one.

Ksubi’ – the Australian jean brand, they’re one of my favourite brands of just clothes and stuff, and the Swedish brand ‘Acne’, but other than that, not at this point in time designing. I wouldn’t mind collab’n with those guys though.

I kind of worry about that a little bit – we lost our film culture for 30 years because the Americans came in and bought up all the cinema chains and wouldn’t show any Australian films.

What I believe to be every Australian’s right – a good, safe job with proper pay and conditions.

If you’re Australian, you feel it in your bones because you’re at odds with everybody else, except other Australians, in the sense that people always seem to be behaving strangely. People always seem to be behaving the wrong way, in a different way. You say things and there are silences.

Hollywood is the place to be for actors – and there’s just a big rush when an Australian comes over just because there’s less of them. I guess that’s just how it is. Like if you pick a pink jellybean out of a jar of green ones it’d be amazing, but if you pick a green one, no one will care.

I no longer knew what it was like to feel Australian.

I am very good with dialects, but the two that I can’t do for some reason are the South African and Australian.

Even historically, in Australian football there has been a Dutch influence. Guus Hiddink took us to the World Cup in 2006 and since then weve seen people from Holland and the Netherlands acknowledging us.

I’m an Australian – I grew up in Melbourne and Sydney – but as a kid you don’t learn much about the Kimberley.

I’m not sure (whether Demetriou did anything wrong). I wouldn’t have thought so … but I’m not the ACC (Australian Crime Commission), I’m not ASADA. I’m a football coach trying to coach a game.

I find it a lot with Australian and New Zealand comics, and people from that part of the world, we share quite a similar sense of humour I think.

My father was a headmaster in England and then the dean of a college in Australia. We moved there when I was about five, so my education was in Australia, and I always felt I was Australian even though my passport was British.

Although I’m Australian, I find myself much more in sympathy with the Austrian version!

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.

Technically, the green screen acting can be difficult because there’s something worse than a tennis ball on the end of a stick; it’s an Australian visual effects assistant running around a field with a cardboard dinosaur head on the end of a stick while wearing sandals.

There’s a bunch of directors that I really admire, and Australian ones as well. It would be nice to do a film at home.

Winning the world championship in ’66 was really the pinnacle of the whole thing, because to win a championship with an Australian made engine was a fantastic feather in our cap.

You don’t leave Australia unless you are passionate. Any Australian actor who comes to America is really committed. There are no dabblers – it’s all or nothing.

By 1990, no Australian child will be living in poverty.

The Australian Gerald Murnane, a genius on the level of Beckett, is known in Australia and Sweden but almost nowhere else. And I loved Reality Hunger, David Shields’ recent novel take on the art of the novel.

I believe the Australian people have an affection for the Queen, and so they should have.

I have to confess that I’ve never seen Australian ‘MasterChef.’

I have won the Australian, I won the British, all PGA championships, but I haven’t won the PGA championship.

The most important appointment Pope Francis has made is the appointment of the Australian cardinal, George Pell, as the Vatican’s financial overseer.

Hostility towards China distorted Australia’s international affairs for 20 years until 1972, but reconciliation with China 30 years ago had produced a quarter century of constructive bipartisan relations with our region and the world, unmatched in Australian history.

As you know, the Australian Labour Party is committed to turning the country into a republic. We’ve not stipulated a timeline for doing that. We are sensitive to the other priorities we’ve got as a nation and in the world, but in time the country will head in that direction.

When you arrive in L.A. as an Englishman, you might as well be on the moon. People just don’t understand you if you speak too fast, and most people there think you’re Australian. Ordering was incredibly complicated. I was speechless.

An Australian swimmer who failed to win a gold medal is blaming her loss on social media. In her defense, it is really hard to tweet when you’re swimming.

Media were never allowed into an Australian dressing room until I became skipper. I changed that and invited them in at the close of play each day, thereby confirming for many administrators they had appointed a madman as captain.

Money is tighter now, with the advertising dollar spread a lot more thinly across a whole range of media because of the Internet. It means the television networks have less power to produce shows, and TV is where most Australian actors make their money.

When the Australian Government looked at how to meet the challenges, and the opportunities, presented by our ageing population, it saw that an all-encompassing approach was a prerequisite.

It is tragic that we have lost one of our nation’s finest actors in the prime of his life. Heath Ledger’s diverse and challenging roles will be remembered as some of the great performances by an Australian actor.

I was 15 years old at university, studying economics and philosophy, and I saw a retrospective of Australian film. They were very raw. ‘Picnic at Hanging Rock,’ ‘Gallipoli;’ they were fantastic.

I’m definitely attracted to other Australians; I have a laid-back attitude to life that I feel is very Australian; I love a good barbie.

I remember that feeling when I was a young reader: finding books that were set in Sydney with Australian characters was incredibly exciting.

Am I conservative? Yes, I am. I would have thought conservative is very much middle of the road, representative of the aspirational values of the Australian people. The extreme right has connotations with it that I would never seek to identify with.

The Australian Government’s decision to take on the dominant funding role for the entire public hospital system is designed to: end the blame game; eliminate waste; and to shoulder the funding burden of the rapidly rising health costs of the future.

What’s the point of being an Australian guy traveling through India if you are going to go to India to meet other Australians?

The Australian form of self-respect, however rough-and-ready, heart-of-gold, come-and-take-pot-luck-with-us, and matily extrovert it is, essentially, genteel, ingrowing, self-pitying, vanilla-ice-cream hearted, its central fear a fear of intellect.

I don’t think a swimmer on film works unless you’re Australian, because for them, swimmers are like their football players, their basketball players; they’re huge stars.

I’ve been very physical my whole life. I went out hiking and camping for days in the Australian forest, and when I trained at drama school for three years, we did a whole lot on stage-fighting techniques. And I was a dancer from 5 to 18, so I have a memory for choreography.

For me, David Warner isn’t just the future of Australian batting, he’s the future for cricket in general because he can excel in any form of the game. I’m excited just watching him.

I think we have to keep working enormously hard to see that every single Indigenous child – every Australian child – has true equality of opportunity. Weve got to work harder at it. I think, you know, the heartland issue for us is the gap; the gap in life expectancy in this country.

Australian women tend to tell it like it is – even if it’s the brutal, honest truth. I think American women usually break it to you a little easier. There’s a softer side to them.

Milkbars were not only a crucial part of Australian food culture for nearly half a century, but also influenced the way many of us connected with neighbours.

It’s a fun day, a day which kicks off the start of our tour, it’s got great tradition – Australian cricketers just love tradition – and it’s been a really pleasant day.

In Australia we had the Australian stolen generation of our voting rights. I think a lot of people think its a distant memory, but its not, this happened to our parents or our grandparents.

I started off as an Australian model. I had so many knockbacks, having short hair and being rejected, and I always thought: I’m never gonna get to where I want to get unless I start looking more feminine.

Everything we do as a government is focused on getting help and support for hard-working Australian families. We are standing up for them.

For a while Australians were desperately trying to be cosmopolitan. I think it is a pointless exercise. Australian novels are those rooted in Australia, with Australian landscapes and colours. My work has always had bits of Western Australia in it. It is always here. The world comes to us.

I think everyone’s had a brother or a father or a cousin, uncle or grandfather who’s had health issues because they’ve neglected things. I think that’s almost been part of Australian culture, which is why I think Movember is really important. We need to change that outlook.

It is better to be defeated on principle than to win on lies.

You are not prime minister of Australia because of some kind of process of divine selection. You are prime minister of Australia through the gift of the Australian people.

We are moving toward recognition of the first Australians in the Australian constitution.

I do think Australians as a rule have a very good sensibility to them, and I think most people, if they were given the option, wouldn’t choose to rip off a filmmaker or an artist – I don’t think its part of the Australian psyche.

There are things I read doing research, and there are certain books and writers I just love to read. There are books of Brian Morten’s that I love, for instance. There’s a wonderful book by an Australian writer named Helen Garner called ‘The Children’s Bach,’ and I just love the way she uses language in it.

Easiest job in the world of course, Australian psychiatrist, “Gday Gday how you doing no worries next”.

One of my uncles was actually a sapper who cleared land mines for Anzacs, Australian soldiers, and we had to flee Vietnam. There were 40 of us on a 9-meter fishing boat. We were at sea for five days, a very perilous journey. We were attacked by pirates twice.

I’m Australian! How much more alpha can you get?

If 30 Australians drowned in Sydney Harbour, it would be a national tragedy. But when 30 or more refugees drown off the Australian coast, it is a political question.

It’s rare that there’s a role that requires an Australian accent.

Some people say I sound Australian. I guess it’s all down to Miss Matthews, who taught me English when I was growing up in Dar es Salaam. Nearly everyone in Denmark speaks English, and TV shows are only ever subtitled, not dubbed.

My mom’s a children’s television writer, so I was involved and around from a very young age. When I was eight, I did my first film with Rachel Ward and Bryan Brown, who are a quite well-respected Australian producer-director duo, and that just changed my whole perspective on what I could do in life and be.

The Australian backyard was once built for tradesmen and outdoor toilets. As suburbs spread, it became a playground and source of pride.

We have lost all our big Australian industries and icons, including Qantas when it sold 25 % of its shares and a controlling interest to British Airways.

Yet the small house, probably more than anything else that man has done, has made the face of Australia and to an extent the faces of Australians. Australia is the small house. Ownership of one in a fenced allotment is as inevitable and unquestionable a goal of the average Australian as marriage.

It is the misfortune of contemporary leaders, across the whole spectrum of Australian life, that the community’s demand for strong leadership is growing in direct proportion to our lack of confidence in ourselves. The end of this century is an unusually difficult time to be a leader in Australia.

Meeting Australian mountaineer and author Tim Macartney-Snape when I was 16 in 1994 had a big impact on me. His ascent of Everest from sea to summit captured my imagination.

Yeah, back in 2003, I went to ‘Australian Idol’ the first day as a boy, and I got knocked out. So I went back the next day in drag and made it into the Top 12 and got a record deal and toured around Australia.

The goal of Australian foreign policy should be to promote the maximum harmony between the U.S. and China.

My mother’s Maori, and my father’s Australian. I take my strength from both my ancestors, and I’m really privileged.

In Australia, I wrote lots of little plays and put them on, and then I worked on a few different TV shows, like the Australian equivalent of ‘SNL.’ I would write and perform all of my characters.

As Australian palates continue to be curious and enquiring, so does the variety and regional specificity of cuisine options.

If I was whisked away… I think I could put up with anything, except not seeing the Australian landscape. It would be a torture to have it cut off.

My experience is that the Australian people rarely get it wrong – they will vote for a united party that is able to look after their interests and the national interest.

Only in sport? The qualification would seem meaningless to many Australians. What also is there that matters as much as sport? It is only in sport that many Australians express those approaches to life that are un-Australian if expressed in any other connection.

I love simple, elegant clothing with a hint of sexy, and that, for me, is so hard to find. I usually always end up finding Australian brands, and Kookai is an example of that.

If, in schools, we keep teaching that history is divided into American history and Chinese history and Russian history and Australian history, we’re teaching kids that they are divided into tribes. And we’re failing to teach them that we also, as human beings, share problems that we need to work together with.

It’s something I’ve always wanted – to be known as an Australian. When I was younger I was always referred to as an Aboriginal tennis player. Now I think the award means that I have been recognised as an entertainer and that makes me happy… It’s given me probably as big a kick as winning Wimbledon.

I feel like I’ve been marinated in Australian theatre.

I think the Australian men and American men are quite different. I feel like Australian men might be a little bit more laid back and a little bit cool whereas American guys are sort of ‘boom, boom, boom.

In 1958, Anne and I returned to Australia, where I got a very attractive research position at the Australian National University in Canberra. But soon I felt very isolated because at that time game theory was virtually unknown in Australia.

There’s never been a weak South African or Australian team. They are fighters.

I am not part of that earlier Australian generation who set off on a deliberate search for fame and fortune in distant lands. My generation was the first that didn’t need to. By the 1980’s when I left home, our culture had grown deep enough and wide enough to encompass all but the most rarefied of ambitions.

I grew up listening to Nirvana, and then went through some bad 90s pop stuff – a lot of Australian one-hit wonders.

Shoot straight, you bastards! Don’t make a mess of it!

The Australian Open attracts one of the most competitive line-ups in the world and I’m looking forward to putting the heat on some of my old on-court rivals.

I’d always felt the Australian cricketers’ behaviour had been appalling. Tampering the ball too constitutes poor behaviour.

I think, often with Australian films, if an Australian film has been given the seal of approval by an offshore festival or an offshore release, then it does mean a lot to a local audience.

I’ve always wanted to make Australian art interesting. To get a different audience watching art documentaries would be great.

I like the sensibility of Australian film a lot and the crews are fantastic. Great characters, wonderful people and no line between – I think in Hollywood they have this line between actors and crew a lot, and that just didn’t exist, which I really appreciated.

In ‘The Hobbit,’ there were British, Irish, Australian and New Zealand actors, and Peter Jackson was adamant that we would all sound like we were from Britain somewhere.

There’s two people I would say to try to go and watch who are probably the future of tennis. One girl called Taylor Townsend, she got a wildcard from the event into Wimbledon; she’s an American girl. On the men’s side, there’s an Australian guy called Nick Kyrgios; he’s 19, and he was the number one junior in the world.

The 20th century has been characterized by three developments of great political importance. The growth of democracy; the growth of corporate power; and the growth of corporate propaganda against democracy.

‘Tracks’ is based on the book by Robyn Davidson who, in the mid-Seventies, decided to leave the city, go to the outback, learn to train camels and walk across the Australian desert to the ocean: a journey that is about two thousand miles and will take about six or seven months.

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.

If government and media and all of us in the Australian tribe got together, and the rock industry, we’d just be the greatest cultural force the world has ever seen – we’re such an amazing race.

It’s hard enough being American and trying to make it in an American world, but being Australian, you’re from a whole different country and have a whole different way of doing things.

I definitely grew up on a lot of American bands. I didn’t really know that there were any decent Australian bands until I was around 20.

I grew up being scared of the water, which is embarrassing to say as an Australian, but it’s true.

Before The Ultimate Fighter, I was appearing before a couple of hundred people at most. Now, I’m on the card of a Las Vegas blockbuster… this is every Australian fighter’s dream.

What’s funny is that there’s a lot of great Australian actors in American movies but you don’t often hear them do their Australian, original accent.

The fact is Burke is smarter than two thirds of the Western Australian Labor Party rolled together.

We met Ben Mendelsohn, who had acted with Ryan Gosling in ‘A Place Beyond the Pines,’ and that’s the first place where we’d seen him. And we’re embarrassed to say that we didn’t know that he was a famous Australian actor at the time that we saw it.

When you go to Australia you are always asked whether you can perform in hostile environments against high pace and every Australian side I have played against has had guys bowling over 90mph.

Across the board, Australian films need to have a lot more money spent on selling them.

I still, by and large, make low-budget Australian films.

My commitment to the Republican movement was pure and simply patriotism, a love of Australia… a desire or passion that all of our national symbols should be unequivocally and unambiguously Australian.

I don’t want to get involved in Australian politics. You are a democracy, and Australian people should decide who they will vote for and I’m not mingling or interfering in that all.

Yes, I have an Australian wife; she is half Bengali, half British.

The Prime Minister seems now to be basing his re-election campaign on this plot line. He is saying to the Australian people, look out, the baddies behind you – hiss, boo and whatever you do, don’t vote Labor. This political parody of pantomime is looking and sounding desperate.

If the Fed ceases hiking, against the backdrop of still rising commodity prices, then the Australian dollar will have few reasons for resisting any topside advances.

But re-reading Voss also demonstrates again that although White wasn’t ‘a nice man’, and indeed was—perhaps rightly—scathingly dismissive of my and other Australian writers’ work and origins unless they were his friends, he was a genius, and Voss one of the finest works of the modernist era and of the past century.

You have to remember that I was an Australian girl of the Fifties and Sixties. For Australians at that time, it was imperative to get out of the country and discover the world.

There’s a sense of humor within the Australian culture that prevails when one is in a rather difficult situation.

When I was on ‘Terra Nova’, I had an Australian iPhone and a U.S. iPhone, different time zones, just a couple differences in the machines, but I was able to keep the international aspect of things in order. But I lost my U.S. iPhone right before I left Australia. Somebody’s got it somewhere out there. Send it back?

I really miss Australia. I miss eating fish n’ chips, oh my God, and Australian pies and the wonderful corner shops.

You see, before I became prime minister, the Australian prime minister only attended ever two meetings in the world: the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the South Pacific Forum.

When you’re young you’re influenced by the best teams. So a lot of my favourite cricketers were Australian.

Being involved in sports and having a very sport orientated family just helped the transition extremely well. I guess, in a way, your school colleagues saw you out and about, and you were part of the team you were getting into the Australian way, learning the language. The transition was extremely smooth.

I’d like to be seen as an average Australian bloke. I can’t think of… I can’t think of a nobler description of anybody than to be called an average Australian bloke.

Carbon capture and storage, its commercial development.. is going to be the key to the future of coal. If it is successful commercially, then the Australian coal sector will be a center of prosperity and growth; if it’s not successful then it won’t be. I think in the long run it’s as simple as that.