Senator SANDY MACDONALD (3:51 PM) —Labor, in taking note of these questions this afternoon, throws out a challenge for us to debate the economy. That is a challenge that I think anybody on this side of the house can take. With the GST, small business and the effect of the GST on small business, we have a good record and we can stick to our guns on it. We will keep on doing so until the election.

Australia has experienced strong growth in the March quarter and the economy grew by 1.1 per cent while Labor were talking the economy down in an attempt to grab a cheap headline. The Senate needs to be reminded of the atmospherics of the opposition frontbench on the day that the 1.1 per cent March figure came down. They were completely deflated by that good economic news that was good for Australia. Australia was the only country in our region that had that growth. The March quarters for Thailand, the Philippines and Japan were all negative. The figures for America are not yet out. So that was a very good result for us and we should be reminding the Labor Party of it.

Labor is very confused about the economy. In August last year, the Senate will recall that the opposition leader said that the GST was to blame for interest rate rises, but in February this year he said that the GST is to blame for interest rate cuts. Also in February this year, Mr Beazley said that the new tax system would overheat the economy, but a month later he said that the new tax system had mugged the economy and delivered a king hit, slowing it down.

Senator Ian Campbell —Who's the mug?

Senator SANDY MACDONALD —Exactly. This lot will do or say anything for a vote. They are confused. They have no policy initiative and no policy backbone. The truth is that the March quarter accounts showed that virtually every sector of the economy grew. Our trade surplus also continued to grow and is running at a surplus of $200 million a month. The most recent ABS data show that the largest increase in consumer confidence in 25 years was recorded in June. That is far from Labor's claim that the GST has mugged the economy. Interest rates are, of course, at their lowest in 30 years, compared to the staggering 17 per cent housing rates under Labor. They were even higher for primary producers, some of whom paid 24 per cent.

I want to comment on housing rates as they are quite topical in relation to the Aston by-election. In Aston, 82.5 per cent of residents have a mortgage or are buying their own house. That is one of the highest proportions of people paying off their homes of any electorate in the country. Interest rates for the electors of Aston are vitally important. There can be no more important issue for those 82.5 per cent of people buying their own houses in Aston. Under Labor they were paying between 10 per cent and 12 per cent for their mortgages. They are now paying less than seven per cent to eight per cent. That is at least $300 per month more money in their pockets in their after tax income in respect of a mortgage of about $100,000.

With regard to the comments about roll-back and the changes that Mr Beazley proposes with roll-back, of course we do not know what they are. There was a wonderful report in the Herald Sun last week which stated:

In my experience, when you cannot decide things, when you have no idea of a policy framework and when you are involved in a policy paralysis, what do you do? You create another committee. And what committees there will be! There is one here called the office of population, but there is a much more interesting one. Number one is the national workforce forecasting council. They probably do need some advice as to what the unemployment rate will be. There will be a big role for that council to play under a Labor government. The rate will go up to 11 per cent as it did under Mr Beazley when he was employment minister. I also notice that there is a committee to advise on GST roll-back. I am pleased to see that the Labor Party has a committee on GST roll-back because they talk a lot about roll-back, but they give absolutely no indication of where it might be or how it might take place. (Time expired)