Mr GARETH EVANS —Can I ask the Treasurer, on the subject of small business, what his reaction is to the Yellow Pages Small Business Index released today, which reveals that—among other things—nearly twice as many small businesses believe that government policy now works against them as those who believe that government policy is supportive, that more than 80 per cent of small businesses believe that the economy overall is either in recession or at a standstill and that only eight per cent of small businesses believe that lower interest rates have made any significant improvement to their situation? Just to really make the Treasurer's day complete—

Mr Tuckey —Mr Speaker, on a point of order: constantly today the questioners from the opposition ranks have chosen to make speeches when they could have got across the message they wanted with a two-line question. It is their responsibility to do so.

Mr SPEAKER —I thank the member for O'Connor. I am sure the Deputy Leader of the Opposition is drawing his question to a close.

Mr GARETH EVANS —Just to make the Treasurer's day complete, what is his reaction to the finding that only three per cent identified taxes as their prime current business concern and only two per cent regarded the introduction of a GST as the government's most urgent priority?

Mr COSTELLO —I thank the Deputy Leader of the Opposition for making my day complete. He regularly does so in question time. Every time he gets to his feet, he sort of enjollies all of us on this side of the House.

The critical thing about the Yellow Pages Small Business Index, which the Australian Labor Party likes to refer to, is that it shows a net negative on attitudes to federal government policy. That was the point that he made: 11 per cent net negative. What was it in February 1996? It is 11 now. What was it in February 1996? In fact, who was in office in February 1996?

Government members —Labor!

Mr COSTELLO —And how long had they been in office?

Government members —Thirteen years!

Mr COSTELLO —The net negative was 46 per cent! Why do they ask these questions, except to make my day complete? You should get up here and say, `To make the Treasurer's day complete, why is it that you are only four times better than we were?' We are rather humiliated that we are only four times as good as you were, which indicates that we do believe that there is still more work to go.

What should the government be addressing? Unprompted, top of the mention: tax reform. Who is against tax reform? The Australian Labor Party.

Mr Crean interjecting—

Mr COSTELLO —I stand reminded. You are in favour of tax reform. You are, aren't you? You are in favour of death duties! What areas are most in need of simplification? Top of the list for August 1996: sales tax! Thirty-two per cent sales tax.

As you go through this index—and it comes back through business survey after business survey—it is clear what business wants: they want a strong economy. What do they want? They want low interest rates. What do they want? They want tax reform. What do they want? Industrial relations reform.

Where does Labor stand? Labor is against good macro-policy, Labor is in favour of high interest rates, Labor is against tax reform and Labor wants to take the labour market back to the 1950s! No wonder we are only four times better than your performance!