Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull is being told by key crossbenchers his government will need to start again and rewrite its omnibus bill because they're set to oppose it in the Senate.
The bill attempts to overhaul childcare fee subsidies by linking them to a range of welfare cuts and funding for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
Mr Turnbull says the Coalition has no choice but to look for savings because Labor never properly funded the NDIS when it was in government.
"The reality is we are in deficit. We have debt. That is because we need to make savings and we are making savings here in addition to the childcare benefits reforms and we are applying them to fund the NDIS which otherwise would have to be funded out of debt and what we need to do is live within our means."
While the bill does pour more than a billion dollars into child care, Labor and the Greens have made it clear they won't be supporting the bill if it's tied to cuts to family welfare payments.
So the government's only hope now is to rely on the Senate crossbench - but that may prove difficult.
Independent Senator Nick Xenophon has already indicated he'll be advising his team - which has three votes in the Senate - to block the legislation.
"The childcare package is a good package of measures but the cost of it is too high given that the government wanted that money to come from some of the most vulnerable families in the community by cutting too deeply. We think there are better ways to make savings."
The South Australian senator says he'd rather see the money come from a small increase in the Medicare Levy or a decrease in defence spending.
And there's not much support from the rest of the Senate crossbench, either, with Independent Jacqui Lambie and the Liberal Democrat's David Leyonhjelm also set to oppose it but for different reasons.
"I'll tell you what they can do with their omnibus, they can stick it where it fits. This is very cheeky trying to roll it all into one because they're never going to get it through."
"The bottom line is this if it doesn't save money, if it doesn't save the taxpayer money, I'm not going to vote for it anyway."
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asked the Prime Minister directly in the parliament if he was being political with the NDIS.
"Why is the Prime Minister holding the future of the National Disability Insurance Scheme hostage to his cuts to families carers pensioners and young people?"
"We've all supported it. We've all supported it. As Prime Minister I've signed up every jurisdiction so we're all on board but you know there's a little thing that the Labor Party forgot, Mr Speaker, it's paying for it."
Just seven months after the election the government is now facing the reality of just how hard it will be to get its legislative agenda through the Senate.
Senator Xenophon's already hinted that there are some parts of the bill that his team would support, meaning there are more negotiations to come.
