Mr BYRNE (2:47 PM) —My question is to the Prime Minister. Prime Minister, how do you respond to the Aston small business man Michael Ferguson, who says that for the first time in his life he will not be voting Liberal because:

Prime Minister, with your GST's first anniversary just a few days away, do you really think that small business people like Mr Ferguson have anything to celebrate?

Mr HOWARD (Prime Minister) —I enter what I call the normal ALP caveat in relation to questions that are based on correspondence. I could say a few things to Mr Ferguson. I will not indulge the hubris of a person whose name is well remembered in this place by saying to him, `You have never had it so good.' I will not make that foolish error, but I tell you what I will say to him: if you measure by retail sales the economic conditions in which small business operates at the present time— and if you are running a business you normally like to sell things, whether those things are goods or professional services or other kind of services—retail sales are not doing too badly. I would point out to him that the rate of inflation now is significantly below the average rate of inflation during the 13 years of Labor government and that we have very strong economic growth and dramatically lower interest rates.

If you were put against a wall and were asked for the one single reason above all other reasons why, if you were in small business, you would never dream of going back to Labor, it would be the absolutely absurdly high level of interest rates that operated under the former Labor government. If you were buying a home or running a business when Labor was in office, you were paying 17, 18, 19 or 20 per cent interest rates. If you were a farmer, you were on a bill rate of sometimes 22 or 23 per cent. I have lost count of the number of men and women in small business whom I have met all around the country and who may even have had an argument with me or with the government about one aspect or another of policy but who, time after time at the end of a conversation, have said to me, `Well, I mightn't agree with you on that particular issue, but I tell you what: I will never go back to voting for the Labor Party after what their high interest rates did to my business and the devastation of those high interest rates on my business and on my family.'

The small business experience of this country has permanently etched upon it the destructive effect of those high interest rates that occurred when the Leader of the Opposition was a senior minister in the Hawke government and a senior minister in the Keating government. What made it worse is that the people who imposed those high interest rates boasted that they were the right solution to the nation's problems. I can only say to the men and women of small business in this country that, like any other section of the community, you are entitled to take issue with the government about this or that policy but, at the end of the day, high interest rates will do more damage to your business than any other policy. And, on that ground alone, never countenance going back to the Labor Party.

Mr Byrne —Mr Speaker, I seek leave to table an article in the Sunday Herald Sun which details Mr Ferguson's concern with small business and the GST.

Mr SPEAKER —The member for Holt has sought leave to table an article—

Mr Howard —Oh! You're tabling an article. You said it was a letter.

Mr SPEAKER —When the House has come to order, it is the custom for questions to be addressed through the chair. Is leave granted to the member for Holt?

Leave not granted.