Falling out?

“Now, this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.” The more trouble these negotiations find themselves in, the better for Australia. It was always inevitable that the extreme demands of the Greens to shut down Australia’s economy would clash with Gillard’s desire to keep the core Labor vote. And now the cracks are beginning to surface. We can only hope that the gap between them eventually becomes too great to bridge.

As the ABC reports:

A meeting today between the Government and the Greens on climate change has broken up quickly amid reports of serious disagreement between the two parties.

It is understood the Greens are unhappy with the Government’s preferred deal on industry compensation, including substantial assistance to coal miners.

Other sticking points include compensation to coal-fired electricity generators and the emissions target when the carbon tax moves to an emissions trading scheme.

An informed source has told ABC News Online “the temperature of the negotiations has been pretty high lately”.

The source said the Government appeared unwilling to budge from its position.

Neither side is willing to comment publicly, but Greens leader Bob Brown issued a terse statement saying he and his deputy Christine Milne met Prime Minister Julia Gillard, Treasurer Wayne Swan and Climate Change Minister Greg Combet.

Senator Brown said more discussions are expected on the weekend, however a spokesman for the Prime Minister would not confirm that.

The two independent members of the multi-party committee, Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott, have returned to their electorates and may be unavailable for quickly convened weekend talks.

Meanwhile, Mr Windsor has renewed his attack on the Government’s planned $12 million carbon price advertising campaign, describing it as “presumptuous”. (source)

We can only wait, and hope.