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AN Australian senate committee which includes members of the Labor government has unanimously called for the proposed Minerals Resource Rent Tax (MRRT) to be “scrapped immediately” as Fortescue Minerals and junior resources companies revive their campaign against the tax.

The Select Committee on Fuel and Energy issued an interim report today which also recommended that projected MRRT revenue not be included in budget forecasts until consultation has been completed.

The MRRT was negotiated between the government and BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata, a deal which has angered the rest of the sector.

“One per cent of all the companies affected got into a closed-door meeting and hatched this new tax – we think only to get rid of what BHP, Rio and Xstrata feared was the retrospectivity – but the rest of the tax has remained,” Fortescue’s Andrew Forrest said in a media interview today.

The level of resistance within the industry was shown by a report from Newport Consulting which found that 18 of 23 mining executives interviewed want the government to renegotiate the tax.

With the government facing an increasingly tight re-election battle on 21 August, the Association of Mining & Exploration Companies has begun an advertising campaign focusing on the potential impact of the tax across the community, but ceo Simon Bennison says the campaign would not necessarily run through to the election.

However, he says he has no confidence that an agreement with the Labor government would be honoured over the term of the next parliament if, as is expected, the Greens hold the balance of power in the senate.

Greens Leader Bob Brown earlier dismissed a call from Rio Tinto’s Sam Walsh to guarantee his party’s support for the MRRT deal with the government.

“The mining tax legislation will come before the parliament after the election and there it will be properly scrutinised and most likely changed for the better,” Brown said.

“Its’ pretty clear Bob is not changing his direction,” Bennison said. “The longer this drags out unresolved – and it could go for another 12 to 18 months – the greater the uncertainty builds and that effects investment in the junior exploration sector of the industry. That’s a real concern and people who don’t believe there is a sovereign risk to the industry need to rethink that.”