Certain things paint an indelible image in your mind.

One happened to me lately when my mother-in-law told me that whilst doing meals on wheels in winter there was always a place you could find pensioners – in bed.

This was not because of an infirmity but because they could not afford the price of the power to stay warm outside bed.

How completely self indulgent and pathetic we have become that in our zealous desire to single-handedly cool the planet we have pandered to those who can afford the power bill over those less fortunate.

How pathetic we are that South Korea, using our coal, can provide power cheaper to their citizens after an 8,300 km sea voyage than we can with power stations in our own coal fields.

Oh yes, aren’t the solar panels doing a great a job. In Canberra last week it was revealed that they would add $225 to the average electricity bill, and that the Government’s proposed carbon tax would raise them by a further 24%.

You cannot reduce power prices without increasing the supply of cheap power.

Senator Barnaby Joyce
Leader of The Nationals in the Senate, from his column in the Canberra Times.