In addition, respondents want Government to take a more active role in designing this future.

A massive 56% of respondents believed that this would include making targeted interventions that ensure we meet energy reliability, price and energy objectives. A further 31% believed that Government should act as a fail-safe mechanism if the market fails to deliver emission, reliability and price objectives.

In the end, business and consumers as a collective will shape the future of our nation and if the population wants a sensible outcome, politicians have to deliver a sensible outcome. In the end it’s actually up to us, more so than we believe.

From the desired level of emissions reduction to the adoption of a clean energy target, we need to determine the nitty-gritty details before we can move forward. We need to articulate what is an acceptable level of reliability that we want from our electricity system and then build a system and be prepared to pay for a system that does that.

As long as we have those debates in a fact- based way, focusing on what the underlying engineering and technology is and focusing on what the true economics is, while leaving the politics aside, we can build a very sensible energy system into the future.

Explore the responses to the next survey question: What are the biggest opportunities to shape Australia's energy future?