ANGER has deepened within the Opposition over emissions trading, with internal criticisms that chief Liberal negotiator Ian Macfarlane has become too close to the Rudd Government.
Opposition figures were shocked and infuriated when the Government revealed it would not announce its compromise offer on emissions trading until tomorrow - only to discover that Mr Macfarlane had asked for the delay.
Mr Macfarlane admitted he and Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull decided last Monday - when it was clear negotiations would go into the weekend - that the Opposition party room should consider the outcome tomorrow and the plan should not be unveiled by Labor until then.
The move gives opponents of the scheme less time to mobilise against it.
Mr Macfarlane said he had not wanted the Government to pre-empt the party room discussion with an announcement.
''My goal is that the MPs and senators hear the outcome of the negotiations from me - not from the press, not from the Government,'' he said.
But he neglected to tell the manager of Opposition business in the House, Christopher Pyne, who was taken by surprise when Climate Change Minister Penny Wong outlined the timetable on television yesterday morning.
Yesterday one Liberal said a ''Stockholm relationship'' - in which someone is kidnapped and becomes sympathetic to their kidnappers - had developed between Mr Macfarlane and Senator Wong, saying: ''They're getting too close.''
Preparing to wrap up the deal, which benefits farmers, heavy industry and coal producers, Mr Macfarlane flagged that he and Mr Turnbull would push the Opposition hard to accept it.
The negotiations were ''getting there'', he said. ''I'm expecting to have a proposal to put to the party room. I'm optimistic it will be accepted.''
This week Mr Turnbull faces the biggest test so far of his leadership.
His challenge is to get the deal through his party room - after it is endorsed by a shadow cabinet meeting on Tuesday morning - and then minimise the number who cross the floor.
The foul-up over the timetable has further soured the mood in the severely divided Opposition ranks.
Even before, there were rumours about the possibility of one of the hardliners moving for a leadership spill.
Some Opposition sources think Mr Macfarlane and Senator Wong are conspiring to railroad the party room.
Senator Wong said the Government would put a clear offer to the Opposition tomorrow morning, after cabinet and caucus meetings.
But she said the Coalition negotiators already knew broadly what was likely to be offered.
Opposition Senate leader Nick Minchin, a hardliner who does not want a deal, criticised the timetable, saying it raised questions about the Government's bona fides.
It would make it ''very difficult for the Opposition to properly consider what the Government puts'' and whether that made the emissions trading scheme bills worthy of support.
West Australian Liberal climate sceptic Dennis Jensen said he was appalled at the delay.
He said there would be a push at the party meeting for a secret ballot on the deal.
Amid criticisms from environmentalists and the Greens, the Government will ''green up'' part of its scheme, with plans to give more incentives to household action to cut emissions.
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