Murray Watt has spent most of his life making deals, both as a lawyer and then backroom wrangler for Labor factions, before he was in the senate. So when he says this in answer to ‘how are negotiations going’ he is deliberately wanting to stir some things up:

What those parties are saying to me behind closed doors is a little bit more moderate than the rhetoric they carry on in the media, you would expect that.

As I say I’m hopeful over the next fortnight both of those parties can really focus, put aside some of their internal issues or the game-playing they like to get up to, and really narrow down the number of issues that are deal breakers for them. We cannot keep going around in circles with these laws while we see our environment go backwards and while we see housing and renewable projects held up in red tape.

The counterfactual is true though as well – if the government was desperate to pass this legislation, then it would make a deal. Like it did with the Greens last term. But it only wants to make a deal its way, that doesn’t upset mining or captured state leaders like Roger Cook. So what does that tell you?