The estimated construction cost of Snowy 2.0 was set at $2 billion, it’s now blown out to $4.5 billion.

In addition, the federal government paid $6 billion to buy out the New South Wales and Victorian state governments and has had to spend a further $2 billion to upgrade transmission lines.

Total cost – $12.5 billion and counting!

According to Liberal MP Craig Kelly, that could buy six new coal-fired power stations.

In a fiery interview this morning, Minister Peter Dutton told Ray Hadley the taxpayers shouldn’t have to pay for new energy infrastructure.

Queensland’s Katter’s Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter says “politics gets in the way of good government”.

“Unfortunately the politics and the ideology get in the road of coal-fired power,”  he tells Ray.

“It’s an extremely cheap source of generation.

“Renewables have got a place, but everyone seems so desperate to make them the primary source, often to the detriment of what’s good policy.”

Listen to the full interview below

On Monday, Queensland Treasurer Jackie Trad handed down the state budget and it’s left northern parts of the state in the dark.

Mr Katter says youth unemployment in his Traeger electorate is up to 54% but claims the problem has been overlooked by the Treasurer.

“If we pretended we were Papua New Guinea, we’d probably get more money.”