The Australian billionaires apparently the subject of the recent essay penned by Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan have hit back and declared that the senior Labor minister was barking up the wrong tree.

In an essay published last week by The Monthly, Swan suggested that miners led by Andrew Forrest, Clive Palmer and Gina Rinehart were furthering efforts to increase their stakes not only in the corporate world but also in other aspects of Australia.

These people, who amassed their wealth through Australia's lucrative mining sector, were blatantly utilising their privileged status to shape the country according to their whims, Swan said.

"A handful of vested interests that have pocketed a disproportionate share of the nation's economic success now feel they have a right to shape Australia's future to satisfy their own self-interests," the Treasurer wrote in his essay.

The Labor stalwart noted too that few individuals fortunate enough to secure vast holdings from Australia's natural resources have been opposing government policies that he said were meant to deliver benefits to the public.

Swan cited the spirited opposition launched by the mining business community against the mining tax and carbon pricing pushed forward by the Labor-led federal government, stressing too that only deep pockets could fuel such effective campaigns to thwart national initiatives.

It was widely believed that pressures applied by giant miners on the government led to the ouster of former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, forcing his successor, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, to negotiate with BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata a more acceptable form of the mining tax.

However, Swan's allegations border on painting the mining moguls as an evil lot, according to Fortescue Metals Group (FMG), which is majority owned by Forrest.

In a full-page advertisement slots FMG had bought on key Australian dailies, the mining firm accused Swan of trying "to polarise and to incite resentment within our Australian community, turning mate against mate."

What Swan had written can only be characterised as both "an act of cynical hypocrisy ... and an irrational outburst," the FMG ad said.

The company also defended the action of its chair, Forrest.

"Andrew epitomises the spirit of what an Australian can do if given a fair go. For a politician to suggest that he has lost sight of this fair go ethic is baffling," the FMG ad was reported by ABC as stating on Monday.

On his part, Palmer called Swan's claims on his piece as rubbish and stressed that the Treasurer was totally clueless on the actual functions of the economy.

"Swan doesn't know how the economy works ... and he's got to rely on the faceless men in the Australian Labor Party which all live in Melbourne, all send him faxes and texts, tell him what to do and if he doesn't know he can call his department," Palmer was quoted by Agence France Presse (AFP) as saying over the weekend.

He also insisted that his activities do not make him an evil person and suggested during an interview with ABC that "maybe the Treasurer needs more love, more reconciliation, maybe he's had a hard life ... I don't know what's turned him so bitter."

Palmer added that Swan should be pointing the blame on his own Labor party for whatever ails the Australian economy.

"While we can forgive Wayne Swan in the spirit of reconciliation we can never forgive the Labor Party for destroying the wealth of the mums and dads and the kids that live in this country," the miner told AFP.

He stressed too that his main business is too invest and provide jobs for many in Australia and not to undermine the economy.