Labor's bid to revive its alcopops tax appears doomed with the opposition and a key crossbench senator again set to block a new bill when parliament resumes next month.
Treasurer Wayne Swan challenged the opposition, accusing it of being "entirely negative" by opposing a string of government measures since its first economic stimulus package last October.
At a joint news conference with Health Minister Nicola Roxon on Wednesday, Mr Swan said the government was determined to pass legislation to validate the $365 million in revenue collected since April 27 last year.
"This is unfinished businesses from the last budget," Mr Swan said.
"Nothing the government says that it will do is now supported by this opposition. Alcopops, national broadband network, economic stimulus, school modernisation, the list goes on and on."
The government must pass legislation by May 13 to validate the collection of the 70 per cent excise on pre-mixed alcoholic drinks for the past 12 months and it plans to introduce a second bill to enshrine the excise as a continuing tax measure.
Ms Roxon said the government believed the alcopops policy was an effective public health measure and that public health experts agreed.
Cancer Council Australia, the Heart Foundation and the Australasian College of Physicians all repeated their support for the tax with statements on Wednesday.
While the opposition and Family First senator Steve Fielding will support the bill to validate the excise already collected, they plan to use their numbers in the Senate to block the second bill.
Opposition health spokesman Peter Dutton said the previous bill defeated in March was nothing but a revenue grab by the government.
"The coalition's consistent position from day one has been that we will support the legislation to collect the tax over the last 12 months, to validate the collection," he said on Wednesday.
"We will support good measures which address the problem of binge drinking, but we won't support these political games by the prime minister, by the treasurer and by the health minister."
He said the excise had not curbed binge drinking of pre-mixed drinks and had pushed young drinkers on to high-strength beers or spirits.
Senator Fielding told reporters on Wednesday he would not support the tax as a continuing measure without an agreement from the government to ban alcohol advertising during televised sport shown in family viewing hours.
"I suppose we're in the same position as we were a few weeks ago, that the tax won't be supported unless they move on the advertising restrictions," Senator Fielding said.
"They're still trying to hide behind the alcopops tax as a binge-drinking measure ... it is a revenue raiser and it will not address binge drinking," Senator Fielding told reporters.
But independent senator Nick Xenophon called on Senator Fielding not to block the bill again.
"We just need to get on with it," Senator Xenophon told AAP on Wednesday.
"I will urge Senator Fielding not to throw the baby out with the bathwater and to support the tax."
Greens senator Rachel Siewert said the Greens would support the bills as long as the government maintained its pledge of last month to increase funding for anti-alcohol abuse measures.
Mr Swan rejected a suggestion that the bill's failure could hand the government a double dissolution trigger and prompt an early election.
"Malcolm Turnbull might load the gun but we certainly have no intention of firing it," Mr Swan said.
Ms Roxon said the latest Treasury figures showed that while $365 million had been collected by the excise, the forward estimates showed it would raise $1.6 billion, less than the original estimates, because of a fall in alcopops consumption.
"That could vary in the future because it affects patterns of drinking," Ms Roxon said.
"We would hope that it does continue to affect patterns of drinking, that we see consumption reducing. That is the purpose of the measure."
She said she had already held talks on the new bills with the minor parties.
Deputy Prime Minister Julia Gillard says the federal government is not trying to trigger a double dissolution election.
"We are trying to do what we set out in the last budget to do which was an important health measure," she told ABC Television.
"An important measure about binge drinking, an important measure about the price of sugary drinks marketed to young people.
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