Labor will warn several of Australia's largest miners and gas explorers they could lose the trust of the Australian people and foreshadow a tax crackdown on some of country's biggest employers.

In a stinging rebuke of Australia's third-largest industry, Labor frontbencher Andrew Leigh will dress down an audience of executives over billions of dollars in tax avoidance, opening the door to a new mining tax-style campaign from industry in the lead-up to the next election.

"What is legal is not always moral or economically sound," Dr Leigh will tell the Australian Petroleum Production and Exploration Association at their own conference on Friday.

"One reason most of us pay the taxes we owe is that we believe we live in a society where our fellow citizens do the same, bad apples can spoil the whole barrel."