A Liberal Party veteran and former head of the federal government's green bank has unleashed on his party's "immoral" climate change policies, saying they "knowingly and willingly inflict damage on others".

Ex-Macquarie banker Oliver Yates, chief executive of the government's $10 billion Clean Energy Finance Corporation until April this year, said far-right members had hijacked the party and that "reform from the outside" may be required – in the form of a rival party that better reflects core Liberal values.

His comments follow a stunt by Victorian Liberal senator Jane Hume at a party fundraiser last Thursday night, in which she presented a mock lump of brown coal to Treasurer Scott Morrison. Mr Yates stood up and loudly objected to the stunt before angrily leaving the $10,000-a-table event at Melbourne venue Glasshouse.

Mr Yates told Fairfax Media that climate change was "not a laughing matter" and the stunt was "flagrantly immoral".