Senate blocks mining tax repeal

COALITION plans to repeal the mining tax have been blocked by Labor and the Australian Greens in the Senate.

After days worth of debate the upper house on Tuesday voted against a move to scrap the Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT), 35 votes to 32.

Cries of "shame" were heard around the chamber as the result was read.

Scrapping the mining tax was a major platform on which Prime Minister Tony Abbott campaigned at the September election.

Even with the support of Independent senator Nick Xenophon and Democratic Labour Party senator John Madigan, the coalition did not have the numbers for the bill to pass its second reading.

Opposition debate on the bill focused on the need for mining companies to pay more for the right to harvest Australia's finite resources.

The money, forecast to be several billions of dollars, was to be injected into community-building programs under Labor's plan.

But coalition senators said the tax had failed to reap the forecast benefits and was instead causing a loss in confidence for foreign investors viewing Australia.

Liberal senator Matthias Cormann described the mining tax as a "dog's breakfast".

It's bad for the economy, it's bad for jobs, it's bad in particular for the great state of Western Australia, he said on Tuesday.

"It was designed deliberately to hold WA back, to make it harder for West Australians to be successful, to make it harder for WA to grow the economy and make more jobs."

As WA heads back to the polls in April for a Senate election re-run, coalition senators repeatedly raised the state in their debate.

"The dagger was put in the heart of Western Australia," Liberal senator Michael Ronaldson told the chamber following Tuesday's vote.

Voters in WA would voice their disappointment about this decision when at the polls on April 5, he said.

Championing the tax during earlier debate, Labor senator Lin Thorp said scrapping the tax would increase the burden on future governments as they struggle to cover high pension and welfare support costs.

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