Liberal Senator Bridget McKenzie said the Treasurer should check his facts, after he told Sky News older power assets were pushing up the cost of power - not the drive for renewables.

Jim Chalmers said the “mainstream players know” Australia must replace its grid of aging coal-fired power stations with renewables as they become less reliable and then come out of circulation.

“I think Australians understand that (we) need to replace these aging assets that are becoming less reliable,” he said on Thursday.

“And, in fact, it’s the old assets which are pushing power prices up, not the new renewable assets which are being introduced into the grid.”

He said the Coalition’s power price fight was “motivated by internal politics” and argued “objective observers” would understand more renewables

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