Ask your mates where their money is going.

Groceries? People will tell you that they are cutting back. Holidays? You’ve got to be joking! So is it the pub? Pokies?

No, start any conversation about money and the answer is electricity and gas.

Australia’s smart answer is coal, so I thought that the ABC’s politically inspired report a week ago about Britain phasing out coal lied by what it didn’t tell us.

Britain ran out of cheap coal years ago.

Some British power stations are still using coal, but it is imported.

Australia sold coal worth $141m to Britain in 2016.

British industry depended on cheap coal for hundreds of years.

British railways were still building new steam engines until the early 1960s. But then something transformational happened.

North Sea oil and gas came on line in the 1960s. Almost overnight Britain dieselised its railways.

The ABC forgot to mention Britain’s nuclear reactors.

The UK has 15 reactors generating about 21 per cent of its electricity. Older reactors are being replaced by new-generation plants.

The government aims to have 16 gigawatts of new nuclear capacity operating by 2030.

Australia’s answer could be uranium - we are the world’s third highest producer. But like our coal we export it to provide reliable electricity for our competitors. If Australia wants clean, reliable power, we could have nuclear reactors, too!

Instead, through our electricity bills we are paying $3 billion in subsidies via the Renewable Energy Fund for unreliable wind farms. We are paying twice because coal is still generating electricity in case the wind doesn’t blow.

Here are some inconvenient facts. Wind didn’t blow on Monday, April 9. Nationally, wind produced no more than about 36 per cent of its pretend capacity, and as low as 20 per cent.

It didn’t blow on Friday, April 6 when Victoria’s wind power output did not reach 20 per cent of capacity at any time. In Victoria the large Macarthur Wind Farm produced zero all day, except for maybe 3 per cent for three hours at night.

Lake Bonney Wind Farms 1, 2, and 3 in SA were near zero all that day, as was the Canunda Wind Farm. South Australia’s average wind production was under 20 per cent until it reached 30 per cent at 9am.

By 1pm until 4pm output was near zero, slowly rising to 40 per cent by about 8pm. How can our politicians claim that we can depend on unreliable wind power to supply industry, hospitals and homes?

Coal power from the Victorian interconnector kept SA going that day, plus probably gas from tiny Pelican Point, or their high-pollution diesel generators.

The new SA government intends to fix their problem by building a new interconnector to NSW, to buy our electricity! Just as Liddell is closing, forcing up our bills, SA will be taking additional NSW power via the grid, forcing our bills even higher!

No amount of faith in political dogma can overcome the fact that the wind doesn’t always blow. If we keep on subsidising unreliable wind, we will keep on paying twice.

Australia supplies the world with coal and uranium. We need new nuclear and coal power stations now, or our standard of living will continue to fall. Wake up, Australia.