Finance Minister Mathias Cormann has again urged the Labor opposition to support the repeal of the mining tax when parliament resumes next week, as new government figures reveal the impost's slim pickings despite it high compliance costs.
Opposition Leader Bill Shorten insists Labor will continue to oppose the government's repeal of the minerals resource rent tax (MRRT) in the Senate, saying this week the party supports the "good principle" behind it.
However, he appeared to signal that Labor could make changes, saying it must engage with the resources sector over its mining policies before the next federal election.
Senator Cormann said Mr Shorten has "sneakily tried to shift the goalposts" on what type of mining tax Labor wants before the April 5 West Australian Senate election re-run.
He said Labor is creating confusion by saying it would create a new version of the tax to take to the next federal election.
"Labor saddled us with a mining tax that raises a fraction of what was promised, yet burdens business with millions of dollars of red tape as well as costing jobs and driving away investment," he said in a statement, describing it as an "anti-WA tax".
The latest monthly government financial statement for January released on Friday shows the MRRT has raised just $312 million this financial year.
This is less than the $377 million that was forecast to have been collected by January.
For the full financial year, the government expects it to raise $500 million.
This is a shadow of the billions of dollars Labor had initially predicted the MRRT would rake in each year.
The accounts also show the underlying budget deficit for 2013/14 as of January was running at $37.2 billion and a fraction more than the $37.1 billion predicted for this stage of the year.
The report says the difference of $101 million relates to higher-than-expected cash payments that were only partially offset by higher-than-expected cash receipts.
For the full 2013/14 year, a deficit of $47 billion is forecast, which is the third largest on record in dollar terms.
I think I'm getting the hang of this C&P thing! 
