Former Australian Independent MP Tony Windsor has said farmers who suffer in drought-affected areas should be denied assistance if they doubt the climate change narrative.

In a series of tweets posted on Monday, the former member for New England attempted to develop his own national drought policy.

Mr Windsor’s suggestions included: “8/..For those farmers who believe climate change is a hoax and that weather conditions are ‘normal’ there should [sic] no assistance as they would view these circumstances as normal operating conditions.”

George Christensen, MP for Dawson, slammed Mr Windsor’s suggestion, calling it “Orwellian”, and saying Australians help people when they’re down, not penalise them for thought crimes.

“Tony Windsor is now advocating an Orwellian system of thought crimes for farmers with the penalty being that you don’t get drought aid. Does he propose that we withhold aid to victims of floods, victims of cyclones and victims of bushfires if they don’t swallow the climate alarmism line?

Mr Christensen added: “What Windsor and his ilk fail to comprehend is that – like Dorothea Mackellar wrote – our nation has always been a nation of drought and flooding rain, and it has always been a land where bushfires and cyclones are frequent, well before the theory of man-made climate change was dreamt up. And as Australians, we help people when they’re down, not ask them their views on the climate!”