Every year, most people I know feel like they’ve just managed to scrape through until they get a break at Christmas. This year it feels like government barely scraped through.

Traditionally, I argue with my dad about politics and policy at Christmas but this year neither of us could muster the enthusiasm for a debate on anything. Politics this year is too exhausting, too stupid, too depressing. Dad, who admired Malcolm Turnbull, cannot fathom why the Liberal party knifed him in August and has now switched off politics almost entirely – he’s not alone judging by the polls since then.

Bill Shorten hit the nail on the head when he targeted ‘distrust, disengagement, scepticism and cynicism’ as Labor’s ‘deeper opponent’ than the Liberal party. It’s hard to persuade people to vote for you if they aren’t listening.

And voters have every reason to be cynical. The public still doesn’t even know why Malcolm Turnbull was rolled by his colleagues. Scott Morrison has looked and acted more like an opposition leader than Prime Minister during his short tenure. And switching to Scott Morrison has certainly not solved any of the Liberal party’s internal divisions – one of the biggest ones being climate change.

At the moment it appears the Liberal and National parties have more problems than they do MPs and Senators, but nowhere is the Coalition further from the electorate than on climate change.

Just as Abbott rolled Turnbull to stop the passage of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme years ago, the parliament was on the cusp of passing a bipartisan National Energy Guarantee that at least had the aim of reducing greenhouse gas emissions, which proved the catalyst for the Liberals to roll Malcolm Turnbull yet again.

When it comes to climate policy, the hard-right wing of the Liberal and National parties is willing to burn the village to save it from solar panels and batteries replacing coal-fired power.

The public wants action on climate change – you only have to look at the results of the Victorian election and Wentworth byelection, or any public opinion poll to see that. The 2019 federal election will be a climate change election.

Australia mines, burns and exports a lot of coal – which is one of the key causes of global warming. If we’re going to avoid more frequent and intense heatwaves, like the one we’re currently experiencing, then we have to stop approving new coal mines and start replacing our ageing coal-fired power station fleet with clean, renewable energy like wind, solar, pumped hydro and battery storage. The public is on board with this transition and so is business.

The Bureau of Meteorology has forecast extreme heatwaves to sweep through parts of Australia over the Christmas and New Year period, some places set to swelter in the 40s for days on end. Extreme heat is dangerous for human health, for ecosystems and agriculture.

At temperatures above 35 degrees, the human body’s main cooling mechanism – sweating – is far less effective and can ultimately be fatal without intervention.

Only if Australia starts reducing its emissions, will the rises in extreme temperature days be far lower and more manageable. Despite the government’s claims, our emissions continue to rise almost as steadily as the government’s electoral fortunes continue to plummet.

Not only are coal-fired power stations unreliable in this type of extreme heat, their emissions are what’s fuelling these heatwaves.

Scott Morrison could only dream of approval ratings as high as solar power enjoys, yet a number of his colleagues are willing to embrace electoral oblivion before they’d countenance increasing the renewable energy target or reducing emissions.

Voters from all sides of politics love renewables. Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why there aren’t more pragmatists within the Coalition trying to hitch the government’s wagon to increasing and extending the Renewable Energy Target – instead of using taxpayers’ money to underwrite new coal-fired power – when the Coalition needs all the votes it can get. But there are other reasons why the Coalition should embrace renewables.

Setting aside popularity, renewables also win when it comes to the Coalition’s chief concern: price.

Renewable energy is putting downwards pressure on electricity prices, the price of building new renewables has plummeted, and the latest research shows renewable energy has reduced electricity prices by far more than the subsidies paid for it.

Contrast this with our ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations, some of which pre-date colour television, which pollute our clean air with greenhouse gases and toxic particulate matter and which regularly break down during heatwaves, right when we need them most. The Australia Institute’s Gas & Coal Watch tracked 44 gas and coal-fired power station breakdowns last summer and there have been 145 breakdowns since December last year. Coal isn’t cheap, coal isn’t clean and coal isn’t reliable. Investing in it, as the government proposes to do, would be a colossal waste of taxpayers’ money.

Renewables on the other hand are cheap and getting cheaper by the day, they are clean and they help with peak demand on extremely hot days – the kind we’ll have more of if we keep mining and burning coal and gas.

Australians are doing their bit too. There are now approximately 2 million Australian households with rooftop solar. According to figures from the Australian Energy Market Operator (AEMO), rooftop solar hit a record proportion of the national electricity market on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, reducing peak demand on the grid by nearly 1800 megawatts. When everyone turns on their air conditioner during a heatwave, demand for electricity soars and rooftop solar allows that peak demand to be reduced, which reduces electricity costs, the likelihood of blackouts and it reduces the need to install more expensive energy backup in the grid.

There are huge electoral opportunities here if the Coalition’s climate policy were not being held hostage by the likes of Tony Abbott and Craig Kelly. If they don’t have some kind of credible climate policy, it will be a gift to Labor and history suggests the voters will be willing to punish the Coalition at the ballot box.

Politics is not a neat business, but 2018 has been particular garbage heap. Sex scandals involving Nationals MPs bookended the year, another PM bit the dust and Andrew Broad has ruined ‘g’day mate’ for all of us. It’s easy to turn off, but it’s damaging for democracy. If you’re tempted to tune out, just think about the tens of thousands of kids who organised and attended the nationwide school strike for climate action – they showed more internal organisation and policy and political acumen on climate change in a few days than the Coalition has in years. I know they give me hope.

So please, finish your Christmas ham and recharge your batteries for the election year ahead – Australia needs you engaged and informed.

Ebony Bennett is Deputy Director of The Australia Institute @ebony_bennett