The government's plan to dilute the renewable energy target is in limbo as Clive Palmer has backed Labor's decision to walk away from talks and declared he won't be doing a deal with the Coalition either.
But the opposition defended its decision on Wednesday, saying the Coalition would not budge from its plan to nearly halve the amount of clean energy mandated by law, and accusing Labor of trying to embarrass the government ahead of G20.
The renewable energy target scheme, which was designed to produce 41,000 gigawatt hours by 2020 enjoyed bipartisan support until very recently when the Industry Minister Ian Macfarlane announced the Coalition would seek to reduce the target to a "real 20 per cent" of about 26,000 GW/h.
This was the despite the Coalition promising before the election to leave the renewable energy target, or RET, unchanged if elected.
With the Greens and now Labor opposed to the government's plans, their success will now hinge on the support of Palmer United in the senate.
But Mr Palmer was unequivocal.
"Good on 'em," Mr Palmer told Fairfax Media.
"We're not doing a deal either," he said.
Mr Macfarlane said on Wednesday he was disappointed negotiations with Labor had collapsed just weeks after discussions had opened and he rejected the opposition's claim that the government was unwilling to compromise.
He suggested that the timing of Labor's decision was related to the global G20 Leaders' Summit in Brisbane.
"I can only assume that the Labor Party is putting politics ahead of policy. And we're a bit perplexed that they would roll out this letter in the eve of the G20," Mr Macfarlane told the ABC.
"We are very disappointed that the Labor Party has walked away from these negotiations and we are keen to resume them if they reconsider their position," he said.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten defended his move and said Labor had "tried its best" to be bipartisan but it became clear Tony Abbott is not "fair dinkum" about renewable energy.
"It's become clear to my skilled negotiators that the Abbott government is just not interested in renewable energy," Mr Shorten said.
"There is no point leading people up the garden path, you can't have negotiations with people who don't want to negotiate.
"Let's not waste the time of investors, let's not give false hope to people, this is a political issue now."
John Grimes from the Solar Council said Labor risked breaking its own election commitment if it had helped the government water down the RET.
"No deal is better than a bad deal," Mr Grimes told reporters in Canberra.
"What this means is that we move from a negotiating position to a campaigning position," he said and vowed to defeat the government on environmental policy.
The Climate Institute says the new "climate policy chaos" will embarrass Australia on the world stage as it prepares to host the G20 in Brisbane this weekend.
