Senator HEFFERNAN(5.44 p.m.) —I have been curious in recent months as to why Senator Peter Cook has been coming into the chamber all hot and flustered after returning from the gym. I can see why; the opposition is considering providing a team for Australia's Olympic gymnastics squad, because today Senator Cook and his mates over there are considering doing a gigantic backflip.

Senator Bob Collins —That was a long lead into a pretty weak joke.

Senator HEFFERNAN —It has presented you with a pretty big challenge, Senator Collins. You can demonstrate on the floor of the chamber, if you like. Today Senator Cook is calling for the immediate implementation of the recommendations of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology report entitled Finding a balance: towards fair trading in Australia . What a turnaround!

In 1990 the government was presented with a report titled Small business in Australia: challenges, problems and opportunities. Chaired by David Beddall, the report recommended, among other things, the introduction of legislation to protect franchisees from franchisors. What did Labor do about it? Not a damn thing, of course—not even when the chairman and the author of the recommendations became the minister for small business! In an interview on 20 May 1990, Maxine McKew asked:

In terms of specific government help for small business, I think your report prepared something like 66 recommendations. How many of those are likely to see the light of day?

In response, Beddall said:

We don't really want to see the success of this ministry being judged on if you've got 51 or 39 recommendations—

up. The minister's report was hardly cold when he was backing away from his own recommendations.

I will tell the Senate how we can judge Labor's small business ministry, and that is on its record. And its record is poor.

In 1994 the Gardini report saw a similar fate to the Beddall report. Once again, Labor ignored recommendations for legislation relating to franchisees. But the backflips started not in 1990 or 1994 but in fact back in 1986, when Labor dropped two draft bills from the legislative program.

So what can we make of Senator Cook's motion today? It is a poor attempt at cheap political opportunism, especially if we ask him to go back to his own party platform and explain their support for self-regulation in this industry.

Senator Schacht, in his part in the debate today, promised to support the government to deliver the recommendations of the report through legislation, but why didn't Schacht—I notice he has had his ears lowered also—support the earlier recommendations when he was minister for small business?

The coalition government is not backing way from anything. Its commitment to small business is on the record. So too is the government's delivery on its commitment. We have given small business capital gains tax relief. Small business owners will be able to gain relief from the capital gains tax when they sell a business to expand and buy a similar business.

We have reduced Labor's paper burden on small business, giving hardworking Australians more time to get on with their business.

We have reduced Labor's legacy of high interest rates—and don't I know it—crippling to small business. I remind the Senate that four official interest rate cuts have occurred since we came to government 16 months ago.

The opposition certainly should look red-faced and uneasy in their chairs over there. All that all bar a few of them have known in life is a union delegateship. They know nothing about small business; they know nothing about the bush.

Senator McKiernan —Stick to the script.

Senator HEFFERNAN —But wait, there's more, Senator McKiernan. We have scrapped Labor's unfair dismissal laws. Our legislation ensures a fair go all round, for bosses and their workers. But we will never say, `This is as good as it gets.' This government will continue to address the problems facing small business as they continue to recover from one of the most prolonged recessions that Australia has ever had—the recession that the former Treasurer said we had to have.

We did not create the problem; but we have taken responsibility for solving it. Our solutions are medium- to long-term solutions—not short-term pastings. This government is listening to small business, evident through the small business task force and the microbusiness consultative group. We are not saying it is not tough out there. Of course it is tough. But, when the flowthrough effect of our reform reaches small business, it will be easier—and hopefully we will also get a shower of rain in the Riverina!

The report Finding a balance: towards fair trading in Australia is receiving the attention it is due from this government. A response will come within three months from tabling, after full consultation with all parties involved, including federal ministers and the states. However, the opposition is getting all hot under the collar over state responsibilities. The report has 12 recommendations relating to retail tenancy. Regulation here rests with the states.

If the opposition have forgotten what Commonwealth responsibilities are, they are kidding themselves if they think they can manage government. I pity small business and the rest of this country if they manage to con their way back in. The former government failed small business, evident in the very index they are quoting today. In February 1996, the Yellow Pages Small business index reported a rating of minus 61 per cent. That is 59 per cent worse than the current index—59 per cent!

Now that they are in opposition they are trying to pass themselves off as the champions of small business, the party for the battler. They were too good for the everyday Australian. That is why all their mates were the high-flying entrepreneurs of the 1980s who got rich off the back of ordinary Australians. Now all their mates are in the can or overseas hiding, and they are out there looking for some new mates. They will not find them. Our policies, initiatives and reforms are helping the small businesses that Labor neglected.

Why has the Minister for Small Business and Consumer Affairs (Mr Prosser) been so successful in helping small business? Because, unlike Labor, he knows what it is all about. To hide their own inadequacies, Labor knock a man because he is good at what he does. They knock a man who built a successful business, starting as a mechanic on the work shop floor. Without fail, the opposition knock at any opportunity just for the sake of opposition.

The Yellow Pages Small business index is a regular favourite. As soon as it is out, there they are spouting the results—but not, as Senator McGauran said earlier, all of them. Although the information contained in this report is interesting—and I will get to some of it shortly—the opposition should not put that much weight on it. I could not agree more with Senator Schacht's comments this afternoon that `the more information the government can get the better'. However, Senator, once again you and the Labor Party fell short when you had the chance, because the index does not survey the small business men and women from the backbone of our economy: the farmers, the members of an industry which includes fishing, farming, forestry and mining, which continues to contribute 75 per cent of Australia's net external earnings.

But, again, it is not unusual that Labor ignores the bush. The Leader of the Opposition, Kim Beazley, thinks Canberra is regional Australia. The worn-out union delegates opposite think the bush is two trees in their backyard. They know nothing of the bush. Their former leader thought pigs could fly!

Senator Murray thinks all farmers are rich. He is out of touch with the transfer of wealth that occurred in the 1970s from the bush to the city. I invite him and Senator Collins to spend a week in my state of New South Wales with the farmers who are struggling to educate their kids as El Nino and another bad year approach. That is as far off the mark as the propaganda that says that pastoralists of Australia are all Sultans of Brunei. Unfortunately, the Democrats have got to refer to the Parliamentary Library to learn where the bush is.

As I said, I find some results of the index worth reporting in this place. The most recent Yellow Pages small index reports that 62 per cent of businesses now expect to expand, as Senator McGauran said earlier. That is good news for small business. Sixty-one per cent of businesses expect an improvement in profita bility over the next 12 months. That is good news for small business. What is good for small business is good for Australia.

To say that Labor can support small business and understand what small business is about when they are entirely composed of a generation of gurus from the union world, a party that applies the same rules to super-unions as it does to super-business, is absurd and obnoxious to the ordinary Australian.