My philosophy - inclusive and pluralist Islam, dedicated to service to human beings from every faith - is antithetical to armed rebellion.

Savage people realize their aims through fighting, through conflict. Cultivated and intellectual souls believe that they will attain their aims through thought and discussion.

Even if, at the helm of the country there are people who would like to replace me and suppress me and oppress me at the level of blood-sucking vampires, then I do not want to remove them with anti-democratic means. This is my attitude toward any and even the idea of the consideration of a military coup.

I even reject and condemn in the strongest terms the idea, the consideration of a military coup. If I had the chance I would stand in front of the people who would attempt such a thing and open my arms and beg them to stop.

Experience counts in government even more than in business.

When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.

I'm not, nor is anybody I know in government part of a nasty right wing clique.

Within white Australia, there was a growing movement for what was known as reconciliation - a movement that peaked with millions marching in 2000 to demand the government say sorry for past injustices.