Just over two weeks ago Joe Hockey was giving strong signals the government would, reluctantly, give Qantas a debt guarantee.

He said he would “have to be dragged kicking and screaming” to that outcome and that the government was not “instinctively” inclined to help out private enterprise, but then he set out all the reasons that Qantas was indeed a special case.

Now, after the markets had built into Qantas’s share price a strong expectation that the guarantee would be forthcoming, it seems there may have been quite a lot of kicking and screaming going on, because Tony Abbott is suddenly indicating the debt guarantee will not be forthcoming.

From the outset there has been deep opposition to the idea at the highest levels of cabinet. Qantas’s rival Virgin has started some fierce lobbying as well, arguing it would amount to a $100m-a-year unfair advantage to Qantas. Backbenchers were questioning how this all would fit in with the “end-of-the-age-of-entitlement” malarky. But there has also been strong public signalling that Qantas’s pleas were being heard. And Labor has said it would consider the idea.

The government’s first preference is to change the Qantas Sales Act. Labor says it would consider changes to the 25% limit on a single foreign investor or the 35% limit on ownership by a single foreign airline, but not to the 49% overall limit of foreign ownership – a position that was Labor policy in the 2009 aviation white paper, but which went no further because the then Coalition opposition did not support it.

So now the government favours the legislative option, most of which Labor won’t allow through, and Labor favours the option the government has gone cold on.

In the meantime the government has adopted its default position – talking about the carbon tax – even though Qantas imposed a ticket surcharge to cover that costs, and says it is all Labor’s fault that the Sales Act won’t be changed.

But when the national airline is in this much strife and 5,000 jobs are on the line, it is the government people look to for answers. Next week’s federal cabinet meeting and party room meeting should be interesting.