Senator CONROY (Victoria—Leader of the Government in the Senate, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister on Digital Productivity) (14:14): I am very pleased to receive this question because, at its core, it is a question about the strength of the Australian economy. It is an allegation from Senator Joyce that this economy has been hit hard by the carbon tax. What we need to do is take a stocktake. Let's take a stocktake of the Australian economy. Our economy is 11 per cent larger than since Labor came to office. That is very impressive growth. We have seen growth to the September quarter at 3.1 per cent compared to a 10-year average of three per cent. We have unemployment rates—as again demonstrated today—at 5.4 per cent, well below the OECD average of eight per cent. We have an exceptional job creation record. We have over 840,000 jobs created. The PRESIDENT: Order! Senator Joyce: Mr President, I rise on a point of order, obviously on relevance. This question is about power prices and why we were promised a 10 per cent increase yet we had a 14.5 per cent increase. Could the minister address the question without the other ramble? The PRESIDENT: At this stage, I believe the minister is answering the question. Senator CONROY: The question from Senator Joyce is exactly about the economy. It is exactly about the impact of the carbon tax on the economy. As I was saying, despite 27 million jobs lost worldwide during the global financial crisis, we created around 840,000 jobs. Our inflation rate is at 2.5 per cent, below the 10 year average of 2.8 per cent. So let's go again to the fraudulent claims being made by some around the carbon tax. The government has said every day since the introduction— Senator Joyce: Mr President, I raise a point of order on relevance. The question was about power prices; he is not addressing power prices. People of western Sydney want to know why they are paying more for power. In his last eight seconds, can he tell the people of western Sydney and Melbourne why they are paying more for their power than they should be? The PRESIDENT: There is no point of order. Senator CONROY: As I was in the process of pointing out, Treasury modelling found that the carbon price would increase household electricity prices by 10 per cent—$3.30 on average a week. (Time expired)