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Notably, the Liberal and National Party shills express zero concern that rampant coal and gas extraction and burning destroys environments as it drives increasingly frequent and intense climate catastrophes – such as the floods and fires that are tearing communities apart – and inflicts rising economic costs on our country. They have nothing to say about the massive hyperinflation of fossil fuel energy prices that has smashed consumers and driven the cost-of-living crisis.

What’s reckless is the Coalition’s call for a suspension of the renewables rollout and a pivot to nuclear. This is another deeply cynical and inane demonstration of how utterly out of touch this ship of fools is. There would be a multidecade wait before we could stand up nuclear generation in this country and, even if we did, it would be prohibitively expensive when renewables costs are falling massively year-on-year. We can’t afford this charade after the devastating lost decade of climate and energy policy failure under the previous federal Coalition government.

Meanwhile, our incumbent federal and state governments and private capital base are now collaborating to accelerate our transition to a sustainable future. For example, the federal government’s Capacity Investment Scheme, announced at the end of last year, quadrupled strategic public capital investment in firmed renewables to “crowd-in” private investment.

Our research shows NSW has a substantial pipeline of renewables in train – more than enough, by the Australian Energy Market Operator’s own admission – to replace the ageing, unreliable and expensive Eraring power station on the Central Coast, Australia’s biggest coal clunker, when it closes in 2025.

Australia’s new government leaders clearly envision a country in which our prosperity is built on our abundance of clean power from sun and wind, as we switch from coal and gas mining, export and generation, and value-add the critical minerals that will drive the new global economy, delivering an economic and jobs bonanza, mostly in regional industrial and mining hubs.

The global race is on, and what we now need to see is a significant escalation in the federal government’s clean tech investment ambition in the May budget and beyond to match the scale and urgency of our opportunity.

Alongside the build-out of utility-scale solar, wind, batteries and transmission, we need more support for clean energy resources at household and commercial level – such as solar PV systems, batteries, heat pumps and EVs – and we need to get polluting, expensive gas out of homes and industry and “electrify everything”, as Dr Saul Griffith, renewable energy leader and founder of Rewiring Australia, has argued.

Just as importantly, we need federal and state governments to get real about our commitment to the Paris Agreement goal to keep warming below the critical 1.5-degree threshold and end their dangerous addiction to new coal and gas. This requires investing at speed in zero-emissions technologies and industries of the future, not digging our massive coal and gas hole deeper. Then we can truly move forward with clarity and conviction.

Tim Buckley is director and Annemarie Jonson is chief of staff with Climate Energy Finance, a public interest think tank.