Download the PDF Mr Thomson (Wills) (14:29): My question is to the Minister for Climate Change and Energy Efficiency and the Minister for Industry and Innovation. Will the minister update the House on the impact of carbon pricing across the economy, including on major sporting and cultural events? How accurate have predictions of these impacts been? Mr Combet (14:30): I thank the member for Wills for his questions. As a Victorian, he knows there is an important carnival going on over the weekend and into next week in Victoria. Carbon pricing has been in place now for four months and of course the economy is growing, inflation is contained, interest rates have come down, investment is growing -- the economy is strong. That's the reality of carbon pricing in our economy: the economy is continuing to grow. It is a very different picture indeed to the nightmare that has been presented over the last 18 months by the Leader of the Opposition. We all know he has predicted that whole towns were going to disappear, industries were going to be ruined, hundreds of thousands of jobs would be destroyed and the weekly shopping trip was going to bankrupt families. I am asked about the impact on major events in particular. The Leader of the Opposition has also claimed that the whole Australian way of life is under threat from carbon pricing. But major events, like the Spring Racing Carnival, which are surely a cornerstone of our way of life, are