The US energy secretary, Chris Wright, has said he “would love to see Australia get in the game of supplying uranium and maybe going down the nuclear road themselves”.

Australia is already the world’s fourth-largest producer of uranium, but nuclear power remains banned at national level.

Wright was speaking at a major summit of international rightwingers in London, where he added that he was also “thrilled” to read recent reports about the development of shale gas in Australia, adding that it would be a “tremendous resource”.

Australia is also the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas, a proportion of which comes from fracking.

“I think Australia has a tremendous future, but it has some of the same struggles we have in the United States and even worse, in Europe, which is this desire for top-down control, for deciding what’s virtuous and what isn’t,” Wright told the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (Arc) conference.

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“And this wholly incorrect belief that somehow there’s a clean energy and dirty energy; there’s good things and bad things – that’s just not how the world works.”

Wright, appearing remotely, was interviewed at the event by the Australian journalist Chris Uhlmann, who said Australia has access to one-third of the world’s uranium and did not do any enrichment. He had asked Wright if the US would be prepared to work with Australia for energy security for both nations.

There was loud applause for Wright earlier in the same conversation when he described the aim of reaching net zero by 2050 as a “sinister goal” and “lunacy”, claiming Britain’s politics in the area had impoverished the country.

“I think the agenda might be different here than climate change. It’s certainly been a powerful tool used to grow government power, top-down control and shrink human freedom. This is sinister,” he said.

Wright, a former fracking executive who was confirmed in his new role earlier this month by the US Senate, also directly challenged the scientific consensus on the climate crisis.

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“Deaths from extreme weather have plummeted over the last 100 years,” he said.

“Most of the climate-obsessed people I’ve spoken to know very little about the data … I think the agenda might be different from climate change. It has certainly been a powerful tool to grow state power and shrink personal freedom – this is sinister.”

Those gathered at the conference included a range of Australian and New Zealand political figures and activists. They were set to include the Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzieand key figures from News Corp.

A list of attendees seen by Guardian Australia last week showed more than 50 Australians, including figures from rightwing thinktanks and churches.

Arc describes itself as an international movement “where empowered citizens take responsibility and work together to bring flourishing and prosperity to their families, communities and nations”.