Family First’s vision for a return to the sunlit uplands of affordable and reliable electricity is thwarted by the Labor, Liberal, Greens and Teal fixation with un-costed net zero policies.

Not even today’s news that one in 10 Australians could not afford to pay an electricity, gas or water bill in the three months to June is enough to hit pause on the roll-out of expensive and ineffective windmills and solar panels.

A similar number defaulted on their mobile phone bills.

Families are doing it tough yet the Albanese Government remains fixated on its $300 million racially divisive voice referendum.

It continues the rushed replacement of cheap and reliable power with uncertain electricity which is estimated to cost an eye-watering $1.5 trillion between now and 2030.

The pain is being felt acutely and anyone who thinks these capital costs won’t show up on families’ electricity bills over the next seven years is kidding themselves.

The Australian newspaper reported yesterday that “households and businesses face extended power price pain into next year after the energy market operator revealed the cost of generating electricity rose 31 per cent in the three months to June”.

Labor’s “energy” minister Chris Bowen, who must roll out 22,000 solar panels per day, 40 industrial wind towers per month and 10,000 kilometres of new transmission towers and wire by 2030 to meet Labor’s target of reducing emission by 83 per cent, keeps asserting that renewables are the cheapest form of energy.

But despite years of billions of dollars of taxpayer subsidies for wind and solar, anyone who has paid an electricity bill in the last 10 years has seen only hikes.

Bowen’s words don’t ring true and are unlikely to ever be realised.

In a column in the Australian today, Claire Lehmann reveals that this claim rests upon one CSIRO report that does not include the costs of constructing the massive number of solar panels, windmills, hydro and transmission lines needed to convert to renewable energy.

Citing the findings of German-American energy economist Robert Idel, Lehmann writes:

When taking into account the full cost of renewables to an energy system, solar is 14 times more costly than nuclear energy, and wind is 4.7 times more costly.

In Texas, his methodology calculates that solar is 3.3 times more costly than nuclear, and wind is 2.3 times more costly.

We keep hearing about storage but the battery technology to store the electricity required to power a modern city for more than a few minutes has not yet been invented.

When asked on 2GB last week how the renewable infrastructure would be built in time by 2030 to meet Labor’s policy ambitions, Anthony Albanese could not say but simply offered the words “technology is changing” and “we have to do this”.

Anyone who knows anything about public policy knows hope is not a strategy.

Australia’s bipartisan net zero energy policy, driven by climate alarmism, is a shambles.

Family First believes Australia’s advantage as an energy superpower should not have been squandered at the behest of global elites spruiking climate alarmism.

While Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is making some encouraging noises about nuclear energy, there is no sign he would stop the roll-out of windmills and solar panels in pursuit of the globalist net zero obligations his predecessor as Liberal leader Scott Morrison signed the nation to.

To try and provide relief for the cost-of-living crisis created by both sides of politics, the Albanese Government is shelling out $3 billion of taxpayers’ money to five million low-income households to relieve the cost of electricity.

Albanese is clearly embarrassed by his pre-election promise that bills would come down by $275 per year.

It’s rare for government money being shovelled out like this not to act like petrol on a dumpster fire when it comes to inflation.

Politicians who failed to plan the economics and engineering of a rush to renewables are making the cost-of-living crisis worse.

Family First is working to get people into parliaments around our nation who will make the case for a return to energy policy which delivers affordable and reliable electricity, restoring Australia’s competitive advantage and prosperity. If we wish to continue on a low emissions path, that will inevitably involve nuclear energy.