But that has come as a surprise to the CEFC which most recently facilitated a finance package in June for a $450 million wind project in Ararat, western Victoria and has a number of potential wind projects in its pipeline of potential investments. The government tried and failed to abolish the profit-making CEFC after failing to get Senate support and its latest strike against wind is expected to further scare renewable energy investors away from Australia, Labor and the Greens claim "While the CEFC exists, what we believe it should be doing is investing in new and emerging technologies, certainly not existing wind farms," Mr Abbott said. In a letter to Mr Hockey and Mr Cormann in February, CEFC chairwoman Jillian Broadbent pointed out that Act governing the corporation compelled it to "facilitate increased flows of finance into the clean energy sector". A copy of the latest investment mandate from the government in March does not specify anything about not investing in established renewable, only that the CEFC should "help mobilise investment in renewable energy, low-emissions and energy efficiency projects".

The CEFC website states its investment focus as being on projects at the "later stages of development which have a positive expected rate of return and have the capacity to service and repay capital." The CEFC Act currently only excludes investment in carbon capture and storage, nuclear technology or nuclear power. Senator Nick Xenophon said he supported a change in focus to back large-scale solar over wind farms. "It was my impression that wind could be funded but very little of it if anything from the CEFC," he said on Sunday. "It was always my impression that this would make it much more difficult for wind to get financed and that large-scale solar would be picking up the slack and I didn't have a problem with that." Senator David Leyonhjelm said he did not know what the government would tell the CEFC but said it was a "general understanding" that wind would be pushed down the list of investment priorities.

"I didn't know specifically what the government would do but they said they would ask the CEFC to amend its mandate to direct its money to newer technologies and innovative technologies," he said Senator Bob Day said the decision wasn't an "anti-wind thing" but the technology had been around for 30 years and the CEFC should "stick to its charter". Greens Senator Scott Ludlam said the anti-wind investment directive came as a surprise to his party which has fought to keep a robust renewable energy target. He said the government's move was "unhinged" because the CEFC is a profitable investment arm of the Commonwealth that is often needed to get bankable projects financed and into production. Kane Thornton, the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, said the CEFC's "primary focus" had been on newer technologies but the directive not to invest in wind reinforced a "perception that renewable energy investment was not welcome in Australia".

In the midst of a global race to attract investment and jobs in renewable energy, Australia has just thrown another weight in its own saddle bag," he said. The CEFC is currently helping to finance a $280 million wind farm with ANZ at Taralga in NSW. The project will power 45,000 homes. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten accused Prime Minister Tony Abbott of "sabotaging the future of renewable energy" and the government of having an "extreme political ideology against wind farms" Mr Hockey famously called the Bungendore wind farm outside Canberra as "utterly offensive" and Mr Abbott has described the only turbine he has seen up close – the single turbine on Rottnest Island – as "visually awful and they make a lot of noise". Mr Shorten said: "The guidelines now being proposed by Mr Abbott mean the only thing the CEFC could invest in is flying saucers because anything which is closer to development than that, Mr Abbott is saying, is an established technology."

Environment Minister Greg Hunt insisted on Sunday that he had not been taken by surprise by the directive to the CEFC by Mr Hockey and Senator Cormann. "This agreement was extensively discussed between and jointly approved by Minister Cormann and myself. I fully support the changes to the CEFC investment mandate and any suggestion to the contrary is categorically wrong," he said. "I've been repeatedly critical of the CEFC investing taxpayer funds in projects such as existing wind farms, rather than focusing on solar and emerging technologies. Our policy is to abolish the CEFC but in the meantime it should focus on solar and emerging technologies as was originally intended."