Shoppers have turned on the former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce after he suggested that “people in the local Kmart” did not care about climate change.

The backbencher made the claim, a new spin on the wisdom of the pub test, at a media conference in Canberra on energy policy and the drought.

If people can’t afford to cook and keep warm, if you go into their kitchen and talk about the Paris agreement, you are showing no respect. Barnaby Joyce

Joyce said the Paris climate agreement “means nothing to them”.

“No 1 for the area is drought and what is happening now,” the member for New England said on Monday. “The other thing is power prices.

“The issue is this: people in the Kmart, people in the local pub, they don’t care about the Paris agreement. It means nothing to them. It has no purpose.

“What matters to them is this: that they can be able to afford their power bills and they currently cannot. It’s not about power prices staying where they are. They are too high. They’ve got to go down.”

Backbencher Barnaby Joyce “people in kmart...don’t care about the Paris Agreement” ⁦@politicsabc⁩ at a hastily called media conference at federal parliament #auspol pic.twitter.com/5gdeQLDZFa — Anna Henderson (@annajhenderson) August 12, 2018

On Twitter, commentators were quick to dispute the link between shopping for homewares and not caring about climate change.

I am a person who is often in Kmart, and I care about the Paris Agreement https://t.co/TekX6uXMfX — Jacqueline Maley (@JacquelineMaley) August 13, 2018

things people in kmart may actually care about, even if they don't know about the international mechanism to stop these things from happening: worsening bushfire conditions, increased time spent in drought, more hot days, decreased winter rainfall — Nick Evershed (@NickEvershed) August 13, 2018

The old Kmart test. https://t.co/O7dNIEhAQl — James Hall (@James_P_Hall) August 13, 2018

Truly nothing makes me feel as carefree as stepping into Kmart https://t.co/C09uDzjbKT — James Jeffrey (@James_Jeffrey) August 12, 2018

A friend who cares deeply about the Paris agreement tells me they read this story on their way to Kmart. https://t.co/7bhMDg15G0 — Jared Owens (@jaredowens) August 13, 2018

I was at KMart yesterday & bought a new squeaky dog toy and a picture frame that turned out to be the wrong size, but I still cared about the Paris Agreement while doing so — rebekkap (@rebekkap) August 13, 2018

Kmart culture war is the best culture war. — Pirate Monkey Provocatéur (@jonkudelka) August 13, 2018

Others pointed out that Kmart’s own environmental policy promises to reduce store energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020.

The 2015 Paris agreement requires Australia to cut emissions to 26% less than the 2005 level by 2030.

Tony Abbott, who signed up to the Paris agreement when he was prime minister, urged the government in July to abandon it.

Joyce said: “There is a disconnect between people who feel isolated and the major parties and we have to make sure we honour that commitment to the people on the peripheries.

“If people can’t afford to cook and keep warm, if you go into their kitchen and talk about the Paris agreement, you are showing no respect.”