The federal government was scrambling to land a company tax-cut deal on Thursday, with a marathon late-night Senate sitting threatening to spill over into an extended sitting on Friday.
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Finance Minister Mathias Cormann is leading attempts to convince influential crossbench senator Nick Xenophon, whose NXT party has three votes, to back a cut in the rate to 27.5 per cent for companies with a turnover of up to $50 million.
The One Nation quartet of senators, and independent senators Cory Bernardi and David Leyonhjelm, are already prepared to back a cut up to $50 million.
But the Xenophon team has, so far, said it could only support a cut to a rate of 27.5 per cent for companies with a turnover of up to $10 million - though the government remains hopeful it can convince the South Australian trio to move to $50 million.
Senator Xenophon has said that move is contingent on the government introducing an emissions intensity scheme for the electricity sector, to reduce emissions, and on freeing up gas to drive down prices in South Australia.
An EIS would be politically difficult for the Turnbull government to deliver, despite having the backing of industry, farmers and environmentalists.
As the fate of the package, which was the centrepiece of the 2016 budget, hung in the balance, Social Services Minister Christian Porter criticised business groups on Thursday for not doing enough to back the government's plan.
"I think there is a bit of a sense that some of that advocacy should have been harder and earlier," he said, referring to a last-ditch plea from the Business Council of Australia and business leaders on Wednesday to pass the package in full.
"But it's very persuasive, when you have got significant figures saying this is the path to greater economic growth, to more jobs for the next generation and the current generation."
That delegation of business leaders met with the Turnbull cabinet on Wednesday, Senate crossbenchers and the Labor frontbench on Thursday morning.
Debate on the tax-cut plan, which in its original plan would have cut the rate to 25 per cent for all businesses by 2026-27 and cost the budget $48 billion in revenue, was due to restart late on Thursday evening and expected to spill into Friday.
Senator Xenophon travelled to Adelaide on Wednesday morning because of a family bereavement and was likely, but not certain, to return to Canberra late on Thursday to continue negotiations.
Senator Leyonhjlem said: "My recommendation to the government is that they don't pursue the tax cut this week and let Nick hear from unhappy businesses in South Australia, who want a tax cut".
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