Hughes MP Craig Kelly says he won’t back down “one little bit” on his controversial comments people will die this winter because of government subsidies given to renewable energy.
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Mr Kelly, who is chair of the Coalition’s backbench energy and environment committee, sparked a huge reaction when he said clean power subsidies had pushed up power prices so much some people could not afford to heat their homes.
“People will die,” he said.
Electricity prices in Sydney rose by 19.6 per cent, or an average of $320 a year, on July 1.
Energy Minister Josh Frydenberg and acting Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce disagreed with Mr Kelly’s views, while a Coalition backbencher Sarah Henderson said the comments were “ridiculous” and her colleague had “gone off reservation”.
Labor’s energy spokesman Mark Butler accused Mr Kelly of “scaremongering”, while Greens climate change spokesman Adam Bandt said the comments were “appalling”, and global warming would cause deaths from bushfires, heatwaves, floods and famine.
However, Mr Kelly told the Leader, “The facts clearly support my position”, and more than 90 per cent of feedback supported him.
He said electricity prices were the nation’s number one issue, and green renewable energy subsidies should be “frozen” at their present rate.
Mr Kelly said a study by BA Economics found the $3 billion given in subsidies was directly added to consumers’ power bills.
”It also pushes up the wholesale price of electricity,” he said.
“You also have the fact it adds to the network cost.
“Fifty per cent of everyone’s electricity bill is the cost of poles and wires.
“When a new wind farm gets built somewhere, the cost of hoking that up to the grid gets loaded into the cost of the poles and wires.
“That’s not the only factor that pushes up electricity prices but that $3 billion has been a significant reason.”
Mr Kelly said more than 90 per cent of feedback had been supportive.
”People are coming up in the street and saying, ‘Mate, well done, don’t stop, keep talking,’ ” he said.
“There have been thousands of emails, comments and posts, and people calling up talkback radio, with stories of people who are not turning heir heater on in winter.
“A man rang the radio in tears, saying he had just found out his parents were not turning the lights and TV on at night, but going to bed six o’clock, because they couldn’t afford their electricity.
“They were too proud to tell their kids,” he said.
Mr Kelly said official figures revealed there had been a record number of homes having their electricity turned off by power suppliers, and a doubling of the number of people on payment plans.
Mr Kelly said Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showed 20 per cent more people died in June and July than in the summer months.
”The World Health Organisation says this is because people’s immune system is down, and they say 30-40 per cent of additional deaths in winter can be attributed to cold homes.”
Critics of Mr Kelly said the WHO figures were largely gathered in Europe where winters are more severe.