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The federal government's much-delayed plans to shake up a tax on the offshore gas sector remain stuck in federal parliament, with a deal to pass them seemingly months away.
Labor has been working to get the Coalition on board with the plans, which aim to make gas companies pay more tax sooner than they would have otherwise by limiting the availability of tax deductions.
The changes are fairly modest and have the broad support of the gas industry, which has urged the parliament to pass them to provide certainty.
Labor has looked to the Coalition for support, hoping to avoid dealing with the Greens who want the changes to go much further.
But the Coalition has been holding out and now looks set to reserve its support for at least a month.
The government is hoping to have the changes in place before July 1 — a year after the new tax arrangement was supposed to be in place.
The Coalition is trying to use the PRRT reforms as a bargaining chip to get some additional changes to the sector out of the government.
In particular, it wants to speed up the approvals process for gas projects, which it says are prone to significant delays.
The government has been open to changes in that space and has already gone ahead and announced its intention to make changes to environmental laws.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers told the AFR Business Summit last week that it was working on new changes — insisting they were not part of the PRRT negotiating process, but worthwhile on their own.
"This will accelerate approvals through better use of data, meaning better, faster decision-making and clear priorities without cutting corners on environmental protection," he said.
"Resulting in faster yesses and faster nos."
Mr Chalmers spelled out the plans to the Coalition in a letter to Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor and Shadow Resources Minister Susan McDonald last week, lobbying them to back the PRRT legislation.
But it is understood the Coalition feels the changes do not yet go far enough.
And it is frustrated that some of the PRRT changes are tied to a bill that also deals with the fallout from the PWC tax leaks scandal, arguing the two are entirely unrelated.
It is reserving taking a final position on the changes until after a Senate inquiry reports back in mid-April.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said the government has dragged its heels in responding to the Coalition's requests, and indicated they won't be rushed.
"The Coalition has moved amendments, including to split the PRRT bill off from the unrelated PwC legislation," he said.
"This is cynical wedge politics from a Prime Minister who claimed to be above it and shows how deeply unserious this government is about negotiating with the Coalition.
"The government has a choice — to work with the Coalition on sensible proposals or hand the future of Australia's gas industry to the Greens."
Some in the government are quietly confident the Coalition will eventually back the changes, and the legislation will pass before mid-year.
With additional legislation before the parliament this week, Mr Chalmers urged the Coalition to get on board.
"These reforms will be better for taxpayers, better for the budget and better for business and investor certainty," he said.
"I've also written to the opposition to assure them that some of the changes to approvals processes they are seeking to negotiate are already occurring on their own merits.
"Our PRRT package is backed by the industry and should be backed by the Coalition as well."