Top 150 Tony Abbott Quotes (2025 Update)
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51. “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

52. “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

53. “I’m a politician. I’m not going to get into a whole range of scientific argument with scientists.”

— Tony Abbott

54. “Tony Abbott’s books are so amazing!”

— Tony Abbott

55. “Certainly, my uni days involved some statements that I wouldn’t make today.”

— Tony Abbott

56. “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

57. “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

58. “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

59. “More excuses for more failures.”

— Tony Abbott

60. “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

61. “I do enjoy exercise, not because I am an exercise junkie but because it’s terrific stress release.”

— Tony Abbott

62. “We will be a consultative, collegial government. No surprises, no excuses. That’s what you’ll get under the Coalition.”

— Tony Abbott

63. “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

64. “Political parties don’t work when people just announce what they are doing and expect everyone else to follow.”

— Tony Abbott

65. “We’ve got to maintain freedom of navigation of the seas and in the air.”

— Tony Abbott

66. “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

67. “A government that understands the limits of power as well as its potential.”

— Tony Abbott

68. “We are a very like-minded group, the senior members of this government. The outliers are not very far away from the mainstream.”

— Tony Abbott

69. “Middle income families with children are Australia’s new poor.”

— Tony Abbott

70. “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

71. “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

72. “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

73. “When politicians complain about the media, it strikes me as resembling footballers complaining about the umpire.”

— Tony Abbott

74. “I am in favour of the notion of Australia as an immigrant society.”

— Tony Abbott

75. “The the relationship between the prime minister and the monarch is very much a personal one and when it comes to the constitution of the Order of Australia, which is headed by the monarch, this is governed by letters patent, which are a matter between the prime minister and the monarch.”

— Tony Abbott

76. “The measure in the budget in relation to parental leave pay is based on a simple proposition. Most women across Australia have access to one scheme funded by the taxpayer. Some women have access to two schemes and that’s great.”

— Tony Abbott

77. “It was a positive sign that the conversation took place, it’s a sign of the depth of the friendship between Australia and Indonesia.”

— Tony Abbott

78. “I am, as you know, hugely unconvinced by the so-called settled science on climate change.”

— Tony Abbott

79. “I am extremely unwilling that we should take upon ourselves to exercise a jurisdiction which the law does not vest in us.”

— Tony Abbott

80. “Whether carbon dioxide is quite the environmental villain that some people make it out to be is not yet proven.”

— Tony Abbott

81. “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

82. “I’ve always avoided those sorts of self-assessments because if you give yourself a 10 out of 10 people think you’re a big head, if you give yourself a 6 out of 10 they think you’re plagued with self-doubt, so I’m just not going to rate myself.”

— Tony Abbott

83. “I also think that if you want to put a price on carbon, why not just do it with a simple tax? Why not ask motorists to pay more, why not ask electricity consumers to pay more and then at the end of the year you can take your invoices to the tax office and get a rebate of the carbon tax you’ve paid.”

— Tony Abbott

84. “There are no factions in the Liberal Party.”

— Tony Abbott

85. “If you want to put a price on carbon why not just do it with a simple tax.”

— Tony Abbott

86. “Human society was so constituted, for human nature was so constituted, that the honour and dignity of a father were connected with that of a son; and there was no son who must not be disturbed and disquieted by imputations on his father.”

— Tony Abbott

87. “In the era of mobile phones and emails, you’re no more out of the loop in China than you are in Sydney.”

— Tony Abbott

88. “I’ve always been very wary of debates involving women.”

— Tony Abbott

89. “I think my wife and my kids are incredibly good to allow me to stay in public life given that they have to cop a whole lot of collateral attention that, being human, they’d rather not get.”

— Tony Abbott

90. “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

91. “I instinctively try to protect people from filth.”

— Tony Abbott

92. “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

93. “So, my friends, in a week or so the Governor-General will swear in a new government.”

— Tony Abbott

94. “Look, good government doesn’t look for excuses, good government gets on with the job.”

— Tony Abbott

95. “Oppositions are not there to get legislation through. Oppositions are there to hold the government to account.”

— Tony Abbott

96. “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

97. “Today, we have got more excuses from the government.”

— Tony Abbott

98. “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

99. “Like the Governor-General, when asked what you enjoy most about the job my tendency is to say “today”, because of the insights you get into our nation and because of the privileged contact you have with so many people.”

— Tony Abbott

100. “It is fit that justice should be administered with great caution.”

— Tony Abbott