Hyperbolic Greg

“Shinzo Abe on Tuesday invited Australia to join the main stage of history for one of its episodic ­appearances. In a masterful performance in the House of Representatives, as intricate as a fine Noritake pottery work, with as many moving parts seamlessly working together as the robotics in a Nagoya car plant, Abe presented the occasion as the birth of a ‘special relationship’ ­between Japan and Australia. In truth, Abe was more ambitious than this. He was presenting nothing less than the birth of a new Japan.”

‘Abbott makes history as the midwife to birth of post, post-war Japan,’ Australian, 10 July 2014.

“Calling an ETS a market mechanism is nonsense. Imagine you could receive a financial credit for every neighbour you promised not to punch and then sell those credits to people who did want to punch their neighbours. You would have a huge incentive to pretend to want to punch all your neighbours.”

‘We’d be crazy to enter into an ETS,’ Australian, 3 July 2014.

“Assuming the carbon tax is repealed, there is a good chance Greg Hunt will become the Scott Morrison of climate change and deliver almost all he promised.”

‘We’d be crazy to enter into an ETS,’ Australian, 3 July 2014.

“Here is a big tip. Modi will get Indian economic growth back to 8 per cent a year well within his first term. This will change everything.”

‘Plug into the Modi moment,’ Weekend Australian, 31 May 2014.

“Narendra Modi could be India’s Deng Xiaoping. Modi may turn out to be as big an influence on global history as the legendary Chinese leader. It is of course very early days, with the results of India’s national election only coming through late on Friday. But already, Modi has changed global history. He may well ­reshape global economic and strat­egic issues, with immense implications for Australia.”

‘India’s game changer,’ Australian, 19 May 2014.

“If I believed in reincarnation, I think I’d like to come back as a Joint Strike Fighter. Lean, sinuous, sleek, intimidating, the best in my class. Ah… […] The JSF acquisition speaks to the character of the Abbott government and settles several theological questions about its approach to defence. […] Perhaps only an Abbott prime ministership could possibly deliver this. You have to conclude that, while ever Abbott is PM, Australia will remain on the track of a serious defence capability.”

‘Fighters strike the right note on national security,’ Australian, 24 April 2014.

“I meet my first F-35 in a hangar at Fort Worth. Though I will see them in full flight at Eglin Air Force base in the Florida panhandle a few days later, this first meeting is a powerful encounter. Gunmetal gray, the F-35 looks like some giant bird of prey from the dinosaur age, its wings half folded back in an arrogant pose of cruising and diving. It is supremely self-contained, 8000kg of fuel, several thousand kilograms of weapons, all tucked quietly inside. Human beings have created very few devices of any kind more sophisticated and complex than the F-35. […] I touch the wings with their mysterious coatings and cannot believe how slim and light they are, though they are made of titanium. At every point this plane is a work of style and grace. The Raptor is the king of fighter aircraft, but the F-35 will be the prince.”

‘Very best of the next generation,’ Weekend Australian, 20 April 2013.

“When first you enter the cavernous and imperial room that William Hague occupies in the Foreign & Commonwealth Office in Westminster, you might, just for a moment, think that the office dwarfs the diminutive Hague. But as soon as he speaks, the rich Hague baritone, in the sturdy Yorkshire timbre of his accent, establishes the absolute authority that he now communicates.”

‘Too close to let it slip away,’ Weekend Australian, 19 April 2014.

“Concerns are not emerging primarily out of people’s lived experience but, rather, out of the dark fantasies of the committed columnists and radio shock jocks who pool their paranoia for the greater harm.”

‘No grounds for racial paranoia,’ Australian, 20 December 2001.

(Source: global.factiva.com)

“Bob Carr has written a minor classic of Australian foreign affairs. But perhaps the word ‘minor’ is unfair. His diaries are full of substance and revelation, a high-octane internal dialogue on several key issues. […] He had a genius for presentation and a zest for argument and explanation that is a kind of zest for life.”

‘Carr’s modern classic,’ Australian, 11 April 2014.