“No-one should be surprised that the sanctuary proposals have failed again. They have no scientific basis (and) were not needed for conservation.”

“The conservatives have less than one third of the seats in the next parliament, but they are a very vocal and a very powerful bunch.”

Dr Urbino did not agree: in his opinion a Liberal president was exactly the same as a Conservative president, but not as well dressed.

Like Aristotle, conservatives generally accept the world as it is; they distrust the politics of abstract reason – that is, reason divorced from experience.

There are times when it is conservative to be a revolutionary, when the world must be turned on its head in order to be stood on its feet.

“Spending is the first thing you hear about when you go out and talk to conservative-base folks.”

“The Conservatives did a much better job learning from their defeat [in 2004] than the Liberals did from their victory.”

“You can amend this. I just take a conservative approach and say bring it back (next meeting) with a bid.”

“Our conservation challenge is managing growth and development to balance places for people with places for wildlife and natural diversity to flourish.”

“We have to lead by example. We can't ask the community to conserve if we're not doing it ourselves. It's not right.”