As an engineer I see the climate problem simply. We have a collection of machines – some burn fossil fuels, others don’t. We need to stop buying the ones that burn poisons and instead buy electric ones and run them on clean electricity. Live well, breathe easy, pay less.

From January, new homes and most new commercial buildings in Victoria will be built all-electric, locking in lower bills and lower emissions. From March, when a gas hot water system dies it must be replaced with an efficient electric one, so existing homes get the savings too. And when a renter’s gas heater fails, the landlord must install efficient electric heating. The tenant’s bills get slashed, not just the owner-occupier’s.

Those laws are now on the ballot because the gas industry has the money and power to unduly influence our politics. Before November’s election, the Liberals, the Nationals and One Nation are all promising to scrap them before they start. They say they are defending your “right to choose”.

What they are defending is the right of a few very large, mostly foreign-owned gas companies to keep making enormous profits by making choices for you, choices we know damage your children’s health today and their future tomorrow.

We did the modelling for the Liberals and Nationals under senator Andrew Bragg’s electrification inquiry. One Nation has been harder to reach,........

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