Gerry Harvey

“Some analysts think people come into our shops and then go and buy the product on the Internet, but the manufacturer knows if the customer can't see the product and assess it, they won't buy.”

“We're supposed to be an entrepreneurial company; we're meant to be expanding and looking for opportunities - but the minute you do it, you get your head bashed in.”

“I was talking to Rupert Murdoch the other day at a lunch, and he said, 'Maybe I'll live to 100'. He actually thinks he will live to 100!”

“You get that air of satisfaction from achievement. It makes you feel good. We are only here for a very short time, and so you're crazy if you don't go out and try to milk it to the greatest extent you can.”

“Importantly, I still give money to homeless people - and all other charities.”

“I get a lot of comments from people that I'm just an ordinary bloke. They immediately feel they have a closer relationship with you; they relate to you.”

“For me, anyone who is over 80, I generally sit down and have a chat to because he is over 80, and he is going OK.”

“I know people like myself where we've got resorts, or we're in the hospitality business, and we just can't make money because you're paying someone minimum $42 per hour or something on a Sunday.”

“I think the main thing you measure your success by is what you do in comparison to your opposition. If you're in an industry where you're the leader, then you're performing very well.”

“I'm a great believer in governments doing as little as possible and people power doing the rest, so I'm in favour of governments being there to govern in the areas that need governing, not a whole heap of other things that they stick their sticky fingers into.”

“Society might have been better off without them, but we are supposed to look after the disadvantaged, and so we do it. But it doesn't help the society.”

“I am a commonsense sort of a person, and I don't get carried away with emotion and fears.”

“The cost to do business in Australia is higher, and the lack of scale is a part of that - Australia is a very small market compared to the U.S.”

“At the end of the day, the more quality individuals you develop in the community, the better off the community should be.”

“The political system is broke. It doesn't matter who the leader is if you are frozen in time and your hands are tied. Social media is so strong that minority groups get a huge say.”

“You've got to open on a Sunday, but at the end of the day, you've just lost a lot of money by opening on the Sunday, so it's very, very difficult to make money when you're paying unskilled people $42 per hour.”

“I'm hoping there'll be, if not a boom, then a big pick-up in housing because if that happens, then it will employ a lot of people, and the domino effect will go through the community, and it will help everyone.”

“If you do genuinely care about people and love them a little, eventually you all have this common goal about where you want to go. They see it, and they believe it, and they become believers with you, and you can achieve wonderful things.”

“I believe you should help people.”

“If I think something is right, I'll fight for it - always have. If it's wrong or I've been proved wrong, I'll walk away, and I'll apologise.”