The key crossbench senator Nick Xenophon has signalled publicly to the Turnbull government he will look at cutting tax for big companies if the government guarantees it will implement a bipartisan emissions intensity trading scheme in the electricity sector.

The NXT leader has been saying for months he is not inclined to support tax cuts for business with annual turnover of more than $10m but, on Monday, suggested he would come to the table if the government made a concrete offer on energy policy.

Xenophon criticised the government for walking away from an intensity scheme for electricity, which had been championed by Malcolm Turnbull in the late 2000s.

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“Not only has the opposition come on side but major businesses, the CSIRO looking at it scientifically, have all said an emissions intensity approach is the best and, in fact, I think the only way forward to get us out of this crisis,” Xenophon told reporters in Canberra on Monday.

Asked for specifics about what he was looking for from the government as a quid pro quo in any company tax cut negotiations, Xenophon said he would be looking for “a guarantee [on an emissions intensity scheme] that is locked in in terms of bipartisan support”.

“You would actually unleash billions of dollars of investment in this country but, as part of the equation, it could be a significant part of the jigsaw.”

He also called for a “national approach” on gas to ensure domestic supply at reasonable prices and suggested the government should look at a Queensland scheme that reserves a certain area for development for domestic gas supply only.

Xenophon said the businesses he spoke to in South Australia were much more focused on getting the problems in the Australian energy market fixed than on getting “marginal relief” from a tax cut.

While he has been telegraphing interest in energy policy for some months, the NXT leader’s comments on Monday are the most specific and explicit he has given in terms of a wish list in any company tax cut discussion with the government.

The Turnbull government wants consideration of its $48bn corporate tax cut package this week. The package is currently in the House of Representatives and this week is the final parliamentary sitting week before the May budget.

After recent speculation that the government might split the package in order to legislate at least some of the reforms, the treasurer has signalled he will pursue the full package.

The government’s business tax package is designed to reduce tax rates for all business to 25% by 2026-27.

The first tranche would cut the tax rate for small businesses with annual turnover of less than $10m to 27.5% for the 2016-17 financial year.

The government then wants to progressively extend that lower rate to all businesses by the 2023-24 financial year and further reduce the corporate tax rate in stages so that, by the 2026-27 financial year, the corporate tax rate for all businesses will be 25%.

The package has been deadlocked politically for months because the government lacks the requisite Senate support to cut the tax rate for big businesses from 30% to 25%.

Xenophon’s ask on emissions trading hits an acute point of sensitivity within the Coalition. The government ruled out pursuing emissions trading last December after a brief internal revolt. Various conservatives, and the frontbench moderate Christopher Pyne, insisted the Coalition could not adopt any climate policy that included carbon trading.

Senior government players have continued to publicly rule out an intensity trading scheme as a number of influential business groups and energy market experts have used the Finkel review of energy policy to argue in favour of such a scheme on the basis it would lower emissions in the electricity sector at least cost to households and businesses.

A string of peak bodies have already called on the Coalition to adopt a market mechanism to drive the transition to lower emissions power sources in electricity, including the National Farmers Federation, the Investor Group on Climate Change and the Business Council of Australia, which explicitly called for an emissions intensity scheme.

The current consensus around carbon pricing is a major turnaround in a very short period of time. Three years ago, some of the same groups urged the parliament to get out of the way so that Tony Abbott could repeal the Gillard government’s so-called “carbon tax”.

While the government has been keen to telegraph the message it will not allow emissions trading in the electricity sector, a new discussion paper released by the government last Friday to help inform a scheduled review of its heavily criticised Direct Action climate policy is completely open-ended about what policies might be required to drive the transition to lower emissions technologies in Australia’s energy sector.

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With power prices a continuing political problem for the government, Turnbull government on Monday asked the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to scrutinise the behaviour of electricity retailers, and the contracts offered to residential and business customers, to ensure Australians are benefiting from competition.

Xenophon said the new ACCC inquiry wasn’t enough to deal with the current problems and the country required swifter action.

The prime minister, speaking to reporters on Monday, left open the idea retail electricity prices could be regulated as a consequence of the review to give consumers and businesses relief.

Turnbull said there was a lot of regulation in the electricity market already but the government was expecting the Finkel review to recommend some changes in the regulatory arrangements.

“You’ll no doubt see recommendations from this ACCC review and we will obviously take them all on board and consider them very carefully,” the prime minister said Monday.