TONY ABBOTT

You cannot win an election without a fight.

I would not want to see any relaxation of the law prohibiting human cloning.

I think that marriage is, dare I say it, between a man and a woman, hopefully for life and there are all sorts of other relationships which should be acknowledged and recognised, but I don't know that they can be recognised as marriage.

To move past fear is a cliche.

The truth is I try to take people as I find them.

I'm not running for canonisation.

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.

You try turning up in America without documents, without a visa, without a passport; you'll be treated as very, very much illegal.

All of the people who are using their BlackBerries or their iPhones, Facebook, all of the people who are sitting in cafes and hotels rooms doing their work, they're all using wireless technology, and we shouldn't assume that the only way of the future is high speed cable.

I see myself as a social conservative, but I think that there are lots of social institutions that produce beneficial reforms, like public hospitals, for instance, and schools.

I have close family members as well as lots of close friends who are gay. Many of them strongly support gay marriage.

Once people come to Australia, they join the team.

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.

If we boost productivity, we can improve economic growth.

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

A tax cut to compensate for a tax increase is not a cut - it's a con.

I think leadership is knowing what you want to achieve and then purposefully and sensibly taking steps to achieve it, remembering always that you have got to bring people with you if you are seeking to be a successful political leader.

I'm not saying that people on welfare don't contribute in their own way, but as many as possible should be encouraged to be economically active as well as socially and culturally active.

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

I try to treat people as people and not put them in pigeonholes.

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

I do enjoy exercise, not because I am an exercise junkie but because it's terrific stress release.

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.

If I was in a refugee camp somewhere on the Pakistani border, of course I'd want to come to Australia.

My mum and mad were both very generous, encouraging parents.