The industry minister, Ian Macfarlane, threatened to walk out of a meeting with the renewable energy industry when he presented a “take it or leave it offer” on the renewable energy target (RET) and the industry said it would rather “leave it”.



Macfarlane and the environment minister, Greg Hunt, convened a meeting of renewables and other industry representatives and unions in Canberra on Monday to try to break the impasse in negotiations over the future of the RET.

Macfarlane said the government’s latest offer – that the target would be reduced from a requirement that 41,000 gigawatt hours of energy be sourced from renewables by 2020, to 32,000 GWh – was a take it or leave it proposition.

When the chief executive of the Clean Energy Council, Kane Thornton, said his members could not accept 32,000 GWh, Macfarlane said there was little point continuing the discussion and he might as well leave, according to participants who spoke to Guardian Australia.

The minister did not walk out, but as the discussion continued the ministers said industry representatives should know the government believed it would be able to get the 32,000 GWh target through the Senate with the support of the crossbench.

This is contrary to the previously stated positions of at least three of the eight crossbenchers – Dio Wang, Glenn Lazarus and Ricky Muir. The government needs six out of eight crossbench votes to pass legislation.

The government had originally signalled it wanted very deep cuts to the target. It commissioned the businessman and self-professed climate sceptic Dick Warburton to undertake a review, which recommended the target be slashed to about 16,000 GWh.

After fierce resistance from industry and concerted criticism of that review, the cabinet asked Hunt and Macfarlane to try to reach an agreement with Labor about the future of the program that would allow continued investment without fear of policy change.

Labor and the renewables industry insisted a target had to be in the mid-to-high 30,000 GWh. When the government refused to budge from about 26,000 GWh last year, Labor walked out of the talks. They have resumed unsuccessfully this year, with the government initially increasing its offer to 31,000 GWh and then to 32,000.

Thornton has said previously the government’s current position was “clearly unacceptable to industry”.

As well as the overall target, industry has been urging the government to deal with a glut of renewable energy certificates in the market, perhaps by extending the life of the scheme.

Labor’s environment spokesman, Mark Butler, said there was no point continuing to talk to the government if it would not move from a 32,000 gigawatt hour target.



And he said that if the government secured support for such a target from the senate crossbench, it might be a “short-term victory” but it would not deliver the long-term bipartisan and policy certainty the industry needed.

A spokesman for senator Wang said he would not vote for a lower target unless it was backed by a bipartisan deal between the major parties.

“The government took a position to the last election and they should honour it. If they and the ALP work out a different position senator Wang will consider it, but otherwise he won’t be supporting change.”