Mathias Cormann (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Finance) Share this | Hansard source

No, the way you have put that is not correct. You should know this because you were a part of the government that set this up. ARENA has always been an organisation that provides grants and not equity and debt financing. This continues. The Clean Energy Finance Corporation has always been the body that provides debt or equity financing for commercially viable projects. Within the overall capital allocation of the CEFC, the Clean Energy Innovation Fund brought together the CEFC and ARENA within the CEFC to pursue debt and equity financing options. The overall capital available remains at $10 billion. There has been no money taken out of that overall capital allocation. It is the same as it was before. However, as a result of the agreement that the government has reached with the Labor Party, we are restoring $800 million worth of direct funding to ARENA for its usual purpose, which is to provide grants.