More than 30 backbenchers, including former Prime Minister Tony Abbott and former Deputy PM Barnaby Joyce, have united to lobby for coal-powered electricity. 

Liberal Member for Hughes and Chair of the Coalition’s Backbench Energy and Environment Committee Craig Kelly has also joined the Monash Forum.

The forum supports the use of coal-fired power and aims to warn against the demonisation of coal.

“Electricity is not just a consumer product, it’s also a cost of producing,” he tells Chris Smith.

“If you’ve got low-cost energy, you can produce goods, you can create jobs and you can create wealth.”

“You need to have adequate supplies to baseload generation.”

Senator Jim Molan has also weighed in on coal’s place in Australia’s future, telling Chris there’s no doubt rising power bills are crippling households across the nation.

“We’ve got to deliver,” he says.

“The National Energy Guarantee sees the reliability of our power system in terms of coal.

“Coal is in our future and will stay in our future. Whether you like renewable or not, we’ve got them. To make them meaningful, we’ve got to have Snowy 2.0.”

He says with the Greens criticising their energy policy, it must be good.

Listen to the full interview with Mr Kelly below 

Listen to the full interview with Senator Molan below