Tell us anotherie
"The Federal Treasurer, Mr Costello, has warned businesses they will have to give up tax loopholes if they want taxation reform." — Sydney Morning Herald, March 23.
Kill them, maybe
"The objective of the [United Nations] sanctions was never to punish the Iraqi population." — UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
Inaccurate
"Indonesia was disproportionately punished [by the IMF] because a grossly view had taken hold in some quarters in Europe and North America that it was some sort of rogue state, to be talked about in the same breath as Mobutu's Zaire or Marcos's Philippines." — Former PM Paul Keating, defending "our" rogue.
Stop press — 1
"Indonesia is not a perfect democracy." — US under-secretary of state Stuart Eizenstat.
Stop press — 2
"The US has not always done the right thing by Africa." — US President Bill Clinton, in Uganda.
At the right price, of course
"America needs Africa." — US President Bill Clinton, in Ghana.
Non-core code
"The code has been published and I have said repeatedly that the ministerial guidelines are a guide. They are not a death sentence." — Prime Menzies John Howard on the violation of his ministerial code of conduct by Senator Mines, the minister for Parer.
Curious about money
"People go into the business not because they're smart or intellectually curious — they do it because they want to get rich." — Frank Partnoy, former Wall Street derivatives trader, on his former co-workers, quoted in the Bulletin.