Top 150 Tony Abbott Quotes (2024 Update)
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51. “The problem with politicians getting to know the issues in indigenous townships is that we tend to suffer from what Aboriginal people call the ‘seagull syndrome’ – we fly in, scratch around and fly out.”

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

53. “We shouldn’t be willy-nilly creating potential human life just to satisfy the urges of the scientific community.”

— Tony Abbott

54. “Most of the people who are coming to Australia by boat have passed through several countries on the way, and if they simply wanted asylum they could have claimed that in any of the countries through which they’d passed.”

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

64. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

67. “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

68. “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

69. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

71. “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

72. “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

73. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

77. “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

78. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

83. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

85. “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

86. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

88. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

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

— Tony Abbott

92. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

94. “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

95. “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

96. “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

97. “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

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

— Tony Abbott

99. “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

100. “I think it’s time for the Prime Minister to stop making excuses and to start governing.”

— Tony Abbott