Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy) Share this | Hansard source

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.