The federal government's proposed $5 departure tax hike has been shot down by the Senate.
Labor, Greens and crossbenchers Jacqui Lambie and David Leyonhjelm joined forces to kill the legislation, defeating it 31-30 at the second reading on Wednesday night.
The three Nick Xenophon Team senators, Derryn Hinch and two One Nation senators voted with the government but Pauline Hanson and her One Nation colleague Brian Burston were absent from the chamber.
The government proposed hiking the departure tax paid by passengers at airports to $60 to help pay for the changes to its revised backpacker tax.
The remaining backpacker tax bills were read a second time, to be considered by the Senate at a later date.
It's unclear whether the absence of the two One Nation senators was deliberate or inadvertent.
Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson said he was glad to see the "stupid" policy defeated.
"A move to penalise tourists on top of penalising backpackers was bad policy that was penny pinching at best, and massively counterproductive at worst," he told AAP.
The latest debacle continues 18 months of toing and froing over the backpacker tax.
The government first proposed a 32.5 per cent tax rate in its 2015 budget but announced during the election campaign it was putting that on ice pending a review.
It's now proposing a 19 per cent tax but Labor, Greens and crossbenchers want 10.5 per cent.
