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

Well, again, that is just political rhetoric—and I will conclude my contribution on this point. That was certainly the feedback during our conversations—without attributing feedback to specific people. The feedback that we have received was that ARENA did not feel that, for its purposes, debt and equity financing was workable—that that was more in the remit of the Clean Energy Finance Corporation, and that the focus of ARENA and its purpose were better suited to the provision of grants funding. And what we have done, through this exercise, is to restore $800 million in funding for grants, which was previously supposed to be saved, without making any adjustment to the overall capital available to the CEFC and the CEIF.