Labor backing key to Scott Morrison’s tech fund amid Coalition revolt

PM needs Labor’s support to establish a $1bn low-emissions technology fund after Coalition backbenchers vowed to cross floor.

Scott Morrison will need Anthony Albanese’s support to establish a $1bn low-emissions technology fund after Coalition backbenchers opposed to a net-zero target vowed to cross the floor and vote against the key legislative plank of the government’s climate change agenda.

In the first parliamentary test of the Prime Minister’s 2050 net-zero emissions commitment, Liberal National senators Matt Canavan and Gerard Rennick told The Australian they would vote against the bill aimed at pumping more government money into the Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

The government will need Labor’s support to pass the legislation in the Senate, given the fund will likely be opposed by the Greens, One Nation and independent senator Rex Patrick.

Senator Canavan said he would oppose the fund because it was part of the government’s net-zero by 2050 package that he has vowed to campaign against at the election in Queensland.

“It is going to be a no from me,” Senator Canavan said.

Nationals senator Matt Canavan. Picture: Gary Ramage

He said he would also move Nationals-backed amendments to the legislation allowing the CEFC to invest in nuclear and coal generators.

Senator Rennick said the ­Coalition was “supposed to be the party of private enterprise”.

“Why are we subsidising rent-seekers? That is all this net-zero is about. It is lining the pocket of rent-seekers.”

The Coalition has 36 out of 76 members in the Senate and needs the support of three out of five crossbenchers to pass any legislation that is opposed by Labor and the Greens.

With Senator Rennick and Senator Canavan to cross the floor, the government would need all five crossbenchers to back the fund, which will invest equity stakes in start-ups that are producing low emissions technologies such as carbon capture and storage, soil carbon and methane-reducing livestock feed.

A spokesman for One Nation said it was “highly likely” the party’s two senators, Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts, would vote against the legislation. “All indications are pointing towards a rejection of this wasted money,” he said.

“That will be determined by a conversation that needs to be held between Senator Hanson and Senator Roberts. As it stands, there is a strong indication it is likely to be rejected.”

Liberal senator Gerard Rennick. Picture: AAP

Senator Patrick also said he was likely to oppose it, while a decision is yet to be made by Centre Alliance senator Stirling Griff and Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie. “This latest announcement by the government is just another pre-election exercise in political spin rather than a genuine effort to reduce emissions,” Senator Patrick said.

“This is a second attempt by Scott Morrison and Angus Taylor to help sustain their mates in the fossil fuel industry by supplementing their high emissions products with ineffective carbon capture technology.”

While Labor supports the low emissions technologies that would be bankrolled through the fund, it has previously opposed expanding the remit of the CEFC to invest in carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and electric car infrastructure.

Opposition climate change spokesman Chris Bowen said Labor would consider supporting the legislation if it included “genuinely new money”.

“Our objection has been the constant attempts by the government to dilute ARENA and CEFC funding away from renewable energy into carbon capture and storage,” Mr Bowen told the ABC.

“If this is genuinely new money, we’ll look at the detail.”

Senior Labor sources said the Opposition Leader would be wary of being wedged by the government on the fund, given Mr Morrison was under pressure on climate change.

The CEFC’s Low Emissions Technology Commercialisation Fund would be anchored by $500m in seed capital from the government and $500m raised from the private sector. The fund would make venture capital ­investments, not grants or loans, in Australian start-ups and ­businesses that were involved in low emissions technologies.

Scott Morrison says Australia is not going to be ‘beaten’ by climate change. Picture: David Crosling

The government will table the legislation in parliament ahead of the next election but is yet to confirm it will go to a vote in the final fortnight of sitting weeks for the year, beginning on November 22.

Energy Minister Mr Taylor said the government wanted to pass the legislation as quickly as possible.

“It’ll be matched at least dollar for dollar by the private sector, ­focusing on Australian small businesses, start-ups and innovative businesses that can provide low emissions technologies to Australia, to bring down emissions in Australia, but to the world as well,” he said.

At a business conference in Melbourne, Mr Morrison said Australia was not going to be “beaten” by climate change.

“We’re not going to get depressed about it,” he said.

“We’re going to fix it, because that’s what you do in Australia. You don’t whinge and whine about it. You just get on with it and you get through the challenge.”

Mr Morrison said the UN climate conference in Glasgow had “marked the passing of the baton from political diktats of targets and timetables ... to private enterprise”.

“We believe climate change will ultimately be solved by ‘can do’ capitalism; not ‘don’t do’ governments seeking to control ­people’s lives and tell them what to do, with interventionist regulation and taxes that just force up your cost of living and force businesses to close,” he said.