John Forster is The Reluctant Politician
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Perhaps  Australia, one of the most over-governed societies in the world, burdened  with three layers of government for its tiny population -- and an expectation  there is no problem, personal, economic or social that cannot be solved by  politicians appearing to do something -- might reflect on the failure of the  sky to fall in due to the hung parliament. We might consider whether there  aren't many occasions when less government, rather than more, might be in the  public interest.
Crikey
 
I favor  the policy of economy, not because I wish to save money, but because I wish  to save people. The men and women of this country who toil are the ones who  bear the cost of the Government. Every dollar that we carelessly waste means  that their life will be so much the more meager. Every dollar that we  prudently save means that their life will be so much the more abundant.  Economy is idealism in its most practical form. 
Calvin Coolidge 
 
Politicians  prefer populism to sound public policy. Political leaders think opinion polls  rather then ideas and ideals are what give them legitimacy. Political debates  have become puerile slanging matches and grudge competitions. All this when  the times require, as never before, inspired and inspiring leadership.
Allan Patience
 
The core  job is to develop decent public policy, create a narrative to explain the  national benefits in the broadest context, implement the policy without fear  and with competence, disregard the media cycle and take no care of the  hundreds of polls that will confront you during your stewardship.
Alister Drysdale
 
In these  important public policy debates, we should remind our elected representatives  of the job we are paying them to do: to make reasoned and principled  decisions on our behalf, in the best interests of the nation. We should  require them to focus on this serious undertaking and to exercise their own  best judgment and conscience, without fear or favour, rather than second  guess our wishes.
Scott MacInnes
 
Psychologists  call it the self-justification bias. We make decisions - or arrive at certain  beliefs - for emotional reasons. We then go to work cherry-picking data that  supports our view while systematically ignoring or filtering out  contradictory evidence. 
Alex Green
  
People  spend too much time finding other people to blame, too much energy finding  excuses for not being what they are capable of being, and not enough energy  putting themselves on the line, growing out of the past, and getting on with  their lives. 
JM  Straczynski
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