Electricity cost is number one issue for Australians, says Craig Kelly

Craig Kelly doubled down on his comments suggesting renewable energy and power bills will cause deaths this winter.

Liberal Member for Hughes Craig Kelly. Picture: AAP

Craig Kelly has doubled down on his comments suggesting renewable energy will cause deaths this winter, saying dozens more people could die if power prices aren’t brought down.

Mr Kelly, whose claims were described as “ridiculous” by some of his backbench colleagues, said the cost of electricity is the “number one issue” facing Australians.

“If we look at the numbers from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, on an average day in June or July, you have 500 people, Australians, die,” he told 2GB Radio.

“Compared to in summer, you have an average of less than 400 people. You’ve got at least 20 per cent more deaths per day during winter than you’ll have during summer in Australia. That will surprise many people. The World Health Organisation has estimated that 40 per cent of those additional deaths in winter are put down to a lack of home heating. The WHO says you should have your home heated in winter between 18 and 21 degrees.

“How can you do that here in Western Sydney or all through parts of NSW, Queensland, Victoria, South Australia, down in Tasmania, if you’ve got some of the highest electricity costs in the world?

Mr Kelly, chair of the Coalition’s backbench energy and environment committee, said unrealistic and high renewable energy targets were forcing up prices. South Australia, he said, now has the world’s highest household electricity prices in the world.

“How in this nation we have such abundant coal, such abundant gas, such abundant uranium, a nation that is an energy superpower, how do you go about getting the world’s most expensive energy?” he said.

“The answer is simple, you go down the South Australian track and say ‘let’s have a 50 per cent renewable energy target’. You’d think we would be learning from South Australia, but instead, we’ve got Bill Shorten wanting to copy that for the entire nation.”

The Council of Australian Governments Energy Council last week signed off on 49 of the 50 recommendations by Chief Scientist Alan Finkel in his blueprint for reform of the National Electricity Market.

A CET is the only remaining recommendation to be agreed to by cabinet and the Coalition party room, as a growing number of MPs say any target needs to include clean coal.