The Abbott government is having another stab at abolishing the mining tax, this time in a new-look Senate.
The upper house on Monday began debating legislation to repeal the mining tax, almost four months after Labor and the Australian Greens blocked the government's last attempt to scrap the impost.
They no longer hold the numbers to defeat legislation outright since a raft of new senators began their terms on the crossbench on July 1.
But they'll fight it nonetheless, with Labor senate leader Penny Wong saying the reasons for opposing the repeal had not changed.
"In fact they`ve only been increased ... in the light of the government's deceitful and unfair budget," she told the chamber.
She said the government couldn't decide whether the mining tax was a failure because it didn't raise much revenue, or a disaster because it unfairly hindered the resources sector.
Greens senator Larissa Waters also questioned the merit of scrapping the mining tax as the government made cuts to the budget.
"Only this government would say that we're in a budget crisis and then axe a revenue raising measure," she said.
Scrapping the mining tax was a major platform on which Prime Minister Tony Abbott campaigned at the September election.
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