The urgent need for Family First’s approach to reducing cost of living was underscored by a report this week predicting further rises in electricity bills.

The failure of Liberal and Labor net zero policy has driven prices up by 70pc over the past 10 years as cheap and reliable coal-fired power stations have been shut down.

Net zero policies are set to drive prices up by yet another 70pc according to the report published by the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship.

ARC Australia Chief Executive Gerard Holland said:

“Energy bills have increased 67 per cent in real terms since the Coalition left office in 2007.

“But 60 per cent of that increase has happened in the last 10 years. Something has happened that leaves us on a drastically different trajectory than we would have otherwise been on. That coincides with the expansion of renewables from 8 per cent to 34 per cent. It has been a policy choice.”

Family First has long argued Australia’s “policy choice” should favour cheap and reliable electricity which puts downward pressure on household budgets and drives jobs up by making manufacturing competitive.

Holland said Labor’s even more aggressive net zero targets of converting 82 percent of Australia’s electricity generation to so-called renewables by 2030 would force prices up by another 70 per cent.

“The only way we can see to lower electricity prices is by building more coal-fired power stations,” he said.

“That would obviously have to be paired with a freeze on any new renewable energy and transmission assets.”

Family First agrees. And if there is an imperative to move to net zero that should be done by zero emissions nuclear power over time as the cost of windmills, solar panels and 28,000 kilometres of new transmission lines running to dispersed locations was unaffordable.

And even if renewables were affordable and could provide reliable electricity, which they cannot, the environmental destruction caused by their roll out made ditching them a no-brainer.

The Family First Senate Team of Katie Lush (Qld), Lyle Shelton (NSW), Elizabeth Kikkert (ACT), Bernie Finn (Vic) and Christopher Brohier (SA) are campaigning for the up-coming federal election on a platform of cutting power prices by prioritising coal and gas with an eventual transition to nuclear energy.

So-called renewables would be considered as part of the mix if after economic and engineering analysis they proved feasible. This work has never been done by governments.

Last year Gerard Holland spoke with Lyle Shelton on ADHTV (now Newsmax Australia) where he presented evidence that renewables are the most expensive and unreliable electricity generation option available to Australia.

Peter Dutton and Anthony Albanese are both taking net zero policies to the election, both pledging to stay in the Paris Climate Accords despite the fact none of the big emitters are part of it, including the US which has pulled out under new President Donald Trump.

Australian families and pensioners will continue to pay a “Paris premium” on their electricity regardless of who wins the election.

A vote for Family First sends the major parties a powerful message that this is not good enough.