Labor and the Greens have teamed up in the Senate to vote down investment in cleaner fossil fuel technologies. 

The proposed expansion to the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) would have allowed it to fund the development of carbon capture and storage (CCS) and “blue” hydrogen, which is produced with gas.

Labor MP Joel Fitzgibbon postulated his party only opposed the motion on the assumption Pauline Hanson would vote it over the line regardless.

As a result of the “tactic”, Australia will miss out on $1.2 billion of CCS innovation, and regional areas will miss out on EV charging stations, he told Ray Hadley.

“My colleagues won’t thank me, but this isn’t very clever.

“We should not have won, and Pauline not turning up … gave us the victory I didn’t want.

“This is ideological craziness.”

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