The controversial new 40 percent tax on so-called "super profits" of the country's mining sector again drew flak from Australia's main conservative Liberal-National opposition party which vowed to block passage of the proposed measure.

Liberal leader Tony Abbot said the opposition will not support Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's new tax measures.

Speaking to reporters in Canberra, Abbot said: "I have made it very clear that I am deeply hostile to this great big new tax on the most efficient and the most competitive sector of our economy, the sector of our economy which above all else has helped us to survive the global financial crisis"

He said there is no way the Liberal-National coalition could support the tax measure seen as an added burden to the mining industry.

Abbot made the statement after meeting with senior executives of mining companies, including BHP Billiton Ltd. and Rio Tinto Ltd. in the capital.

Australia's mining giants and their backers in the U.K. have been criticizing the "Henry tax" rules.

But public support has been gaining to tax mining groups more. The boom in Australia's mining sector, particularly iron ore and coal, is being credited for the country's strong economy and why it escaped almost unscathed, the global financial crisis. The recovery in commodities prices are also good news for the mining sector.

Rudd has said that the Australian people deserve a good share on the resources "which they themselves own," in defending the new tax measures. He declared that most mining companies that operate in Australia are foreign-owned had made $80bn (£53bn) over the past 10 years,

Rudd added: "At the same time governments, on behalf of the Australian people, have received only an additional $9bn over that period. That means these massively increased profits, built on Australian resources, are mostly, in fact, going overseas."