On July the 1st, power prices rose around the country - in some places by as much as 20 per cent.
One Turnbull Government MP says renewable energy is to blame.
Craig Kelly, who chairs the government's Climate Change Committee, told the ABC the expensive power bills will have fatal consequences.
"People will die this winter because of policies that we have that subsidise renewable energy."
Labor MP Mark Butler hit back at those remarks, which come on the eve of a major meeting in Brisbane that will bring together energy ministers from the Commonwealth and the states.
"It sends a mesage that instead of taking a sober, evidence-based approach to energy policy at a critical time in the national debate on this question, the Coalition instead intends to continue their four-year-long crusade against renewable energy."
Business groups are urging the energy ministers to put politics aside at the meeting.
They'll be discussing chief scientist Alan Finkel's report on Australia's energy market, and trying to arrive at a unified response.
The Turnbull Government is ready to back 49 out of Dr Finkel's 50 suggestions.
But the Coalition has been unable to decide on the report's key recommendation: a clean energy target that would force power companies to source a percentage of their energy from so-called 'clean' sources.
The office of Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce told SBS the party will only support a target if low-emissions coal is allowed to count as clean energy.
Mr Joyce told Sky News an overly ambitious target will hurt struggling families.
"We know the effect will be that the person, the poorer person, Mr and Mrs Smith in 123 Jones Street in the back street of a regional town or the suburbs will not be able to afford their power bill. And we're not going to do that to them. We're going to make sure we look after the people who are doing it tough. It's all very well for - you know, and I'm one of them - a politician who's probably doing it pretty well, pretty comfortable, doesn't really have to worry about their power bill, to inflict on other people something they can't afford."
The states with Labor governments -- Victoria, South Australia, Queensland and the ACT -- are already threatening to push ahead with their own renewable energy targets, with or without the Turnbull Government's approval.
Federal energy minister Josh Frydenberg is urging them to wait, saying the government might still agree on a national target.
"That does not make sense. Because one of the things that Dr Finkel pointed out was that we (should) have a national approach. And a clean energy target is one of the options that is being considered at the highest levels."
Hugh Saddler is an energy policy expert at the Australian National University.
He says the federal government should let the states take the lead if the federal government can't decide on a target.
"Well it's definitely a mess. I think what the Commonwealth should do if it can't agree on a national policy, it should actually stand behind and endorse the policies of the Victorian and Queensland and ACT and South Australian governments."
Many of the other 49 Finkel recommendations are likely to be less controversial, with the Coalition already agreeing to back them.
Among them are a plan for more battery storage for renewables and a new requirement that coal-fired power stations give three years' notice before shutting down.
