THE Gillard government's mining tax passed a crucial step in parliament after last night winning the support of key Greens MP Adam Bandt in the lower house.

The parties struck a deal after the government caved in to pressure over a revenue hole of up to $100 million, The Daily Telegraph reported.



Mr Bandt last night confirmed a deal had been struck after the minority party had threatened to withdraw its support. The shortfall came after the government lifted the threshold at which the tax kicks in.

With his support the main bill for the tax passed the House of Representatives at 1am (AEDT) today.

The house voted 73-71 in support of the third reading of the Minerals Resource Rent Tax Bill 2011.

Independent MPs Tony Windsor, Rob Oakeshott and Andrew Wilkie, and Australian Greens MP Adam Bandt sided with the government.

Voting on the 10 other bills in the package continues.

Mr Bandt said the funds would not be made up by a new tax.

"I'm very pleased that we have reached agreement with the government on a set of arrangements that will allow us to support the passage of the mining tax through the house of representatives tonight," he said.

"We will be reserving our position in the senate. One of our main concerns has been that what was a very good proposal from Ken Henry originally was significantly weakened when the government caved in to mining companies.

"We were very disappointed when the government reached an arrangement with Andrew Wilkie to cut somewhere in the order of $100 million over the next five years and take that straight out of the public purse and put that into the hands of wealthy miners.

"We have reached agreement with the government tonight that there will be an offset revenue measure that will more than account for that measure.

"We now think that the mix is right to allow the passage of the bills through the house of representatives."

He couldn't reveal what that measure was but said the government would announce it in the next couple of days.

"We are satisfied that it is a progressive measure and that the savings will now not be coming from schools, from childcare, from hospitals," he said.

With Mr Bandt's support in the house of representatives, the mining tax will now pass on to the senate and rely on the further support of the Greens.

Greens leader Bob Brown said: "This is a $100 million win for the public interest just days after the government negotiated a similar win for mining companies. We have balanced the ledger for the wider Australian public.

"The government has agreed to an additional revenue measure at least equivalent to the $20 million per annum lost from raising the mining tax threshold to $75 million."