If you're older than you'd prefer, you might remember the tax that was going to shut down Australia's restaurants.

In 1985, the Hawke government introduced sweeping tax reforms which, among other things, introduced the fringe benefits tax, and applied it to restaurant meals.

Restaurateurs went bananas. Many of their customers were businessmen taking clients, friends or colleagues to long lunches or dinners, and writing off the cost as a business expense. No, it isn't, the government said; it's a fringe benefit of the job, and should be taxed as such.

We were told restaurants would shut down, waiters and kitchen hands would be thrown out of work, the economy would slump. Opposition leader John Howard pledged that the Coalition would repeal the FBT ''lock, stock and barrel''.

Prime minister Bob Hawke and treasurer Paul Keating held firm. The tax came in. Restaurants did not shut down.