Former prime minister Kevin Rudd's nephew says he now has more reasons for fighting Julia Gillard in her seat at the next election.

Van Rudd is running for the Revolutionary Socialist Party in the new Prime Minister's Melbourne seat of Lalor.

Ms Gillard became Labor leader yesterday after former prime minister Kevin Rudd was ousted in a Labor leadership coup.

Van Rudd says the ascension of Ms Gillard marks a more conservative path for Labor because it was the NSW right faction that pushed for the leadership change.

"We feel that we need to make a stand against the policies of the Labor Government," he said.

...

"She's been influenced by the mining magnates, the conservative unions, so what it says to me is we have to stand up and fight against this."

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Meanwhile, on the edge of the holes in the ground...

The head of Australia's third biggest iron ore company, Andrew Forrest, says he is quietly confident the government will compromise on the new resources tax.

Mr Forrest, who runs Fortescue Metals Group, says the Prime Minister Julia Gillard's handling of the issue will define her leadership.

"I feel that the slate's been, I hope, wiped clean. I would say that it's very fine for people to make mistakes, I make plenty of mistakes. It's how you recover from mistakes which define you as a leader," he said.

Under the proposal, resource companies would have been taxed at 40 per cent on profits above a six per cent threshold.

The Australian government has reached a deal with mining companies over controversial tax plans.

Former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd had announced plans for a 40% tax on miners' profits.

But a compromise agreement negotiated by his successor, Julia Gillard, has now reduced the rate to 30% for coal and iron ore miners.

But petroleum and gas operations will still pay a pre-existing 40% tax rate, the government said.

But that will now cover onshore oil and gas projects as well as the offshore operations previously subject to it.

Smaller iron ore and coal companies, with annual profits below A$50m (£28m; $42m), will not be required to pay the new tax.

The plans are still expected to raise billions of dollars for the government, however.

When Mr Rudd announced the tax plans earlier this year, he said he expected to raise A$9bn a year.

The revised plan would raise A$1.5bn less, the government said, but cuts to company tax rates that were to be paid for by the mining tax will still go ahead.

Mining executives welcomed the deal, calling it "a positive outcome".

Mining giants including BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto had initially launched an aggressive lobbying campaign against Mr Rudd's tax plan, warning that it could harm economic growth.

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see toon at top.

Fiona Katauskas, cartoonist for New Matilda, now defunct I believe, did a cartoon once called "A Taxonomy of Australian Birds"... Swan is descrbed as the Yellow Belly Swan, Abbott is shown as a Cocky and there it also the "Noisy Miners"... But I think that Abbott is more of a cuckoo, a crow and a dodo mixed together than a cocky, despite his bulging Budgies... Swan is not Yellow-Bellied though. Spot on in regard to the noisy miners, though they behave like vultures...

Billionaire mining boss Clive Palmer says the majority of Australians want another federal election and resent being "held hostage" by the independent MPs who returned Labor to power yesterday.

Mr Palmer says Queensland independent MP Bob Katter respected his electorate's wishes in siding with the Coalition, but has accused the other independents, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor, of betraying the voters who returned them to Parliament.

"The majority of Australians want another election because they want to be the people that wield the power in the country, not a couple of independents," he said.

"All Australians and all political parties have resented the fact that they should be held hostage by one or two or three members of the parliament.

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No Mr Palmer. not all Australians resent the fact that independents have a say in this political landscape. And no I do not want another election... Although the media wants blood...

Am I on my lonesome here? Sure it would have been best if Labor got a clear "mandate".

But Tony Abbott did everything he could to lie about Labor's real successes... And the media has also done as much as possible to damage Labor and favour the Libs. Yes, there were problems with some programs but these were peanuts — and not the fault of the government — compared to the successes.

For example these days, a woman gives birth to a still-born baby and straight away the media is up in arms, blaming the hospital "underfunded resources" and the Labor government for it... Should the same problem happen under a Liberal government the media would claim it as an act of god... Yes, I truly mean it. I've seen this type of bias before... Fair-go! Still-births do happen even with the best equipment in the world. Still-births have happened since time-dot... My mum had a couple. She got over it. I know a few couples who had some too... They got over it... Accidents do happen too... Tragedy for those involved, but I am sure that hospital staff did their best and would be mortified by the event...

But the media, Abbott and his flees do not like Labor because because...

So according to Mr Palmer, the independents should have gone for a flawed lot of Liberal promises with a hole of 11 billions in the underpants, should have gone for a steam-age broadband when one can get the best — though of course, the media is already whinging we city folks are going to pay more to "subsidise the country folks"... to which I say: so what? —, should have gone for a lesser deal for the "country", should have swallowed obvious porkies like pies in the sky so they could be absorbed into a pack of barking wolves full of self-important bile?...

At least in the Labor camp, the importance of the independent will be noted.