Paul Keating Quotes

Well they have an input into policy but in the end governments are elected to put together policy but the good thing about the Wentworth Group is that you know you've got 11 pretty capable people with a lot of good ideas.

Forget the consultants, the pundits and the pollsters; good policy is good politics.

I'm a really big believer - this is not a statement about President [Barack] Obama, but whoever is president - that good policy is really important.

All policies should be guided by science, not just whose voice is the loudest.

Rational beliefs bring us closer to getting good results in the real world.

From my perspective, we as a nation need to make policy a priority and drive the politics as a result of good policy.

You elected government officials to make decisions and it's about time they started making good ones.

Good politics starts with empathy, proceeds to analysis, then sets out values and establishes the vision, before getting to the nitty-gritty of policy solutions.

Entertaining these opinions of the course to be pursued, I beg of gentlemen to look at the question, as I have done, in a calm review of facts and of principles.

Mostly, I try to take a rational approach to life.

I don't believe in a golden mean; I don't believe you find policy wisdom between two polar points. I don't dismiss that possibility, but I look at the platform that's so ideologically based, that's so dismissive of facts, of evidence, of science, and it's frankly hard to take seriously.

To prepare adequately for the challenge of global warming, we must acknowledge both the good and the bad that it will bring. If our starting point is to prove that Armageddon is on its way, we will not consider all of the evidence, and will not identify the smartest policy choices.

Short-term thinking is the greatest enemy of good government.

Good policy makes good politics and what I've done has been good politics.

Good intentions rarely make good policy.

Good organization does not necessarily mean it will produce good policy. But bad organization will almost never produce good policy.

When ... the interests of the people are at variance with their inclinations, it is the duty of the persons they have appointed to be the guardians of those interests, to withstand the temporary delusion, in order to give them time and opportunity for more cool and sedate reflection.

You can’t make policy on the basis of slogans.

Better a hundred times an honest and capable administration of an erroneous policy than a corrupt and incapable administration of a good one.

You don't determine what is good policy by polling.

Government can have both a heart and a head.

Go with the science!.

My view is, the most important thing as prime minister is trying to make the right judgments. In order to make good judgments, you need good advice; you need good principles, and you need a clear head, and you need to have a sense of equilibrium.

I'm always quite rational.

You must build public policies on reason, on facts.