Today Australia’s now notorious Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, stood and spoke, choking back tears, at his final press conference as Prime Minister at Parliament House.

Amongst the remarks made, Rudd managed to say he was “proud of the fact that we kept Australia out of the global financial crisis,” and “did my best to give Australia a fair go.”

He has handed over the reins of power to Julia Gillard, the new Labour leader who said she is “throwing open the government’s door to the mining industry.”

Without putting too fine a point on things, this is the best news Australia’s miners have had since the dreaded Resource Super Tax news of May 2, 2010, hit the press. In fact, Rudd has subsequently provided many an astonishing headline, provoking extremely outspoken opinion and upset  from some of the world’s mining industry figureheads, and I think it’s fair to say that the last month-and-a-bit has been no short of a disaster.

In our latest issue, released just last night, we tackle the tax head on and little news could be more welcome than this notice of Rudd’s timely departure today. The ends have not justified the means in his tax reform plan. Yes, he is/was working to fix Australia’s taxation system and yes, something still needs to be done. But messing with mining; the nation’s backbone? I think not.

I wish Gillard all the luck in the world with cleaning up this mess and bringing real tax reform to Australia. It is important to look upon this as an opportunity for great improvement, not a mud-slinging contest as Rudd backs away. The nation excels in many industries, especially mining, so let’s focus on what the strengths are. Perhaps this is the beginning of the end to the super tax debacle? One can only hope….