What better example is there that the Liberal party must split than the proposed nomination of Peta Credlin for the seat of Mallee.

If, as Credlin says, “climate change remains Malcolm Turnbull’s kryptonite”, then her preselection could just be the Liberal party’s dynamite. The split already exists, but for now, it’s being held together with sticky tape and string. And Credlin’s preselection could well be the spark that lights the fuse, and blows the whole thing up.

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The Liberal party is suffering an existential crisis. And no other issue defines this crisis like the looming threat to our safety and security caused by inaction on climate change. Credlin understands this and has used her position as a climate change-denying, hard-right mouthpiece of the Murdoch empire to advance her own political interests, and the interests of the coal industry.

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She’s consistently claimed climate change is a political hoax, and used her position in the media to undermine a sitting prime minister and any energy policy supported by the Coalition party room that does not involve more coal and the end of renewables.

She doesn’t represent real liberal views, and if she appeals to what’s left of the “base”, then many people who used to vote Liberal will keep moving for the exits.

Inspired by Donald Trump, Credlin has argued Australia should tear up the Paris agreement, tear up any sensible national energy guarantee. Credlin has demanded taxpayers’ money go to the Adani coalmine and be used to build new coal-fired power stations. It’s madness.

Australians don’t want this. We would prefer a Great Barrier Reef, renewable energy and a future we can survive and thrive in.

These views are so ignorant – their political manifestation through Tony Abbott, Craig Kelly and their ilk – that it presents a grave economic and security threat to Australia’s future. And it could be the final death knell to the Liberal party.

Credlin’s demonstrated lack of understanding of the serious climate emergency we face, or even the basic economics of power production costs are breathtaking. She promotes the view that climate change is some leftwing conspiracy and that the science is rubbish.

These views need to be called for what they are: dangerous.

In her media roles, Credlin has even attacked the scientific foundation for energy and climate policy. From the desk at Sky, she announced her displeasure that former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull asked chief scientist Alan Finkel for real consideration of the climate change transition and energy policy. Instead she demanded a manufactured report devoid of reality.

It is essential now that real liberals stand against this reckless game of Russian roulette

“What started out as a report designed to expose the South Australian Labor government’s catastrophic handling of energy policy leading up to last year’s blackouts” – promoting the lie that the blackouts were caused by renewables – “is now a report that threatens the tense equilibrium of the Coalition party room”, warned Credlin.

Heaven help us if facts were allowed to get in the way of the stability of the party room or facts should reach the people!

We should be deeply concerned that the Liberal party is once again seeking to preselect people who are prepared to sprout deranged conspiracy theories.

“Green ideology has trumped sensible economics. Affordable power, from abundant coal and gas, is Australia’s principal competitive advantage and in recent years, we’ve given it away in the name of saving the planet.”

Good luck finding a bank, or anyone under 35, to agree with you.

The job of any politician should be to put the long-term wellbeing of the public before cheap and dangerous political point-scoring. People are sick to death of it. This kind of pandering to the hard-right’s views did not serve Matthew Guy well in Victoria, and it will not serve the Liberals well at national level either.

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Australians know it’s getting hotter every summer and see the increases in extreme weather. Report after report, overflowing with scientific evidence, traditionally a solid foundation for investment and public policy making, has been abandoned by the federal Liberal party. We understand how this will threaten our families, economy and security, and we must act to provide people with a real liberal alternative.

Credlin, Abbott and the rest of the hard-right’s “commitment to coal” is entirely political. The calculation they’ve made is that their short-term political interests, and the interests of the coal industry, are more important than the future of our country, our people and holistically the environment we all share.

It is essential now that real liberals stand against this reckless game of Russian roulette the hard right are playing with our future. If not, they too will adorn the walls as climate change deniers, who, despite all the evidence, refused to act.

• Oliver Yates is a member of the Liberal party and former chief executive of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation