The urban myth (or is it a metaphor) goes that if you drop a frog in a pot of boiling water then it will leap out to save itself, but if you place it in a pot of tepid water and slowly increase the temperature then it will be pretty badly burned before it makes the jump.
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Too many households, especially first home buyers who took out mortgages at the recent peak of the market, are now finding themselves in hot water over the rising interest rates and rising costs of living.
The Reserve Bank of Australia last week increased interest rates by 0.5 percentage points and it will only compound existing strain on household budgets, including from rising energy prices.
A new report from the Australian Energy Market Operator shows electricity prices in the country's biggest electricity market, covering the east coast, have skyrocketed to their highest level on record in the three months to June 30.
And this is set to continue.
The bottom line is Australian families are expected to solve the compounding problems of rising interest rates, rising inflation and more expensive power - and they're paying for decades of failed energy policy.
The solution to the problem is long overdue - comfortable, energy efficient homes powered by renewable energy. Renewable energy is the cheapest source of new energy to power our homes, schools, places of work, transport and more. Even when you include the cost of transmission and storage to even out supply.
If the federal government invested more in renewable energy our weekly household power bills would fall, Australia's carbon emissions would drop, and we would be creating good, local jobs.
The upcoming federal budget is also a prime opportunity for the federal government to help families struggling with cost of living pressures by providing more affordable access to electric vehicles and installation of solar panels to their homes.
And savvy parents who can afford making the switch to renewables and electric vehicles are already seeing the savings.
Mother of three, Julia Jones, from Perth installed solar panels and purchased an electric vehicle.
She says her electricity bills are now as low as $30 to $40 a month in spring and autumn, including the cost of charging the electric car.
On average, families in Western Australia spend $134 a month on petrol - and that was before the recent increase in petrol prices.
Palani Subramanian who lives in the Sydney suburb of Blacktown replaced gas cooking and heating with electricity provided from solar panels, saving about $1000 per year.
It should be much easier and more affordable for all Australian families to make the switch, benefit from the long-term weekly savings and reduce their cost of living.
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Investment in renewable energy for households across Australia could help make painful price surges in fuel and energy a thing of the past and increase our local energy security.
It is also a significant step towards keeping us safer from the impacts of climate change.
My infant son was one of the more than 4,000 people who ended up in hospital due to the smoke from the Black Summer bushfires.
Almost 450 Australians died from smoke inhalation associated with that extreme weather event and I'll be forever grateful that he was not one of them.
To keep our children and places we love safe into the future, we need to recognise what is going on around us and seize the opportunity for change.
- Nic Seton is the chief executive officer of Australian Parents for Climate Action and father of a four year-old son two year-old daughter.
