Prime Minister Julia Gillard said on Monday that she is duty-bound to honor the agreement she forged with the mining industry on the minerals resource rent tax just before the federal election.

Ms Gillard stressed that it only follows that the mining tax must be implemented by a government she heads, that is if she would be successful in forming a working government following the deadlock that ensued as majority of the votes were all accounted.

It turned out that neither the prime minister's Labor Party nor the Liberal/National coalition was holding sufficient seats to command a majority and claim the government.

The two opposing parties were now scrambling to court independent MPs voted in the new Australian parliament in order to retain or seize power.

When all the horse-trading has been over and done with, Ms Gillard maintained that she would honor the "breakthrough agreement with the Australian miners, our biggest miners, about the Minerals Resource Rent Tax."

The prime minister sealed a deal with mining giants BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata to replace an earlier version of the mining tax with her version that imposes a 30 percent headline rate and focuses only on iron ore and coal profits.

The agreement was hatched following her predecessor's, Kevin Rudd, ouster from power, who resigned amidst the uproar created by his proposed 40 percent tax on mining profits.

Opposition leader Tony Abbot pledged that any form of mining tax, as proposed by the Labor government, would be abolished and latest market shares results by both Rio Tinto and BHP showed some gains with the possibility of him heading a new government.

Meantime, while some votes were still being tallied, the likelihood of forming a new government now hinges on independent votes as Ms Gillard asserted that her party would talk with the independents in earnest and maybe convince them to join her government.

However, she opted not divulge the specific offers that Labor would put forward on the independent MPs in exchange for their support, stressing instead that "the policies of the government are the policies announced during the election campaign."