Morrison government’s carbon capture plan at crossroads as Coalition MPs raise opposition
Labor has left the door open to supporting extra government funding and investment rules changes to support carbon capture and storage, as two Coalition backbench senators reveal they oppose the legislation.
Although Labor has previously blocked attempts to use the Clean Energy Finance Corporation and Australian Renewable Energy Agency to support CCS, the government’s new $1bn low emissions technology fund will challenge the opposition because it is likely to have the casting vote.
Liberal senator Gerard Rennick said he doesn’t think the CEFC “should exist at all” and he can’t support an injection of $500m into the new fund or rule changes that amount to “signing up to the whole philosophy” of the green bank.
Rennick said he doesn’t want “any government schemes” to support one form of electricity over another and also dislikes “pissy pseudo-banks” like the CEFC and Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility.
“The government has a habit of creating funds for purposes that don’t do anything,” he told Guardian Australia.
“For example, there’s a $4bn drought fund that would be better off just spent to build some dams so we have a real asset not a paper asset.”
Rennick also pointed to his recent vow to withhold his vote until the government stops supporting vaccine mandates and provides immediate assistance to people who have suffered adverse affects from Covid-19 vaccines. The Therapeutic Goods Administration says the protective benefits of Covid vaccines “far outweigh the potential risks of vaccination”, and serious side effects are “very rare”.
Nationals senator Matt Canavan told The Australian he would oppose the low emissions technology fund because it is part of the government’s net zero emissions by 2050 policy that he has promised to campaign against at
the election.
“It is going to be a no from me,” he reportedly said.
The loss of two government votes means Labor’s support will be critical to passing a bill in the Senate to create the low emissions technology fund and CEFC rule changes, given likely opposition from the Greens, One Nation and Rex Patrick.
Labor’s opposition has softened, as the government’s proposal contains $500m of new money, but the party is yet to determine its position.
Anthony Albanese on Thursday noted the two Coalition defections, telling Channel Nine’s Today that Scott Morrison “can’t even get the support of his own side at this stage” but at least the pair were “fair dinkum”.
“They say they don’t support any policy on climate change … which really reflects what the Morrison government have done,” he said.
“Look, we haven’t seen any legislation, but this is an announcement in search of policy once again.”
Albanese took aim at Morrison for claiming he wants “less government” but then provides more funding for CCS and $600m to build a gas-fired power plant in Kurri Kurri.
“The contradictions are there from day to day. By the time we get back to parliament, this policy will have changed five or six times.”
Morrison called on Labor to support the government’s ability to invest in carbon capture and storage, noting that US president Joe Biden and Bill Gates also acknowledge “this is an important technology”.
“These are the technologies that actually will get you to net zero by 2050 without having to put taxes on, without telling people what to do,” he told Today on Thursday.
Morrison continued to defend his backflip in support of electric vehicles by mischaracterising Labor’s policy as involving mandates and increased taxes on petrol.
“Labor wanted to force people to do this and I still don’t want to do that,” he told Channel Seven’s Sunrise.
“You don’t get people to do something else by pushing up the price that they are currently doing that is still what Labor wants to do.”
Labor’s current electric vehicle policy and the one taken to the 2019 election did not include a mandate and did not increase costs on petrol vehicles.
Morrison committed to release net zero modelling “before we get back to parliament”, on 22 November.