Matthew Canavan (Queensland, Liberal National Party, Minister for Resources and Northern Australia) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Brockman for his question. I know his strong support for the great and fantastic minerals industry in Western Australia—indeed, across this whole country. The federal government is supporting the development of our minerals industry, including by establishing a new tax incentive to encourage exploration, particularly in risky areas of our nation.

Explorers often put large amounts of capital at risk in areas for exploration which are unknown and untested and can often lose a lot of money if nothing is found. If nothing is found and they have lost those funds, they can't then make the tax deductions necessary against recoverable income to offset their losses. That is why the government has put in place a junior mineral exploration incentive, which will allow explorers taking these risks to recover their tax losses immediately and to provide those benefits to shareholders, so they can encourage more investment in mineral exploration. Hopefully we can find more minerals and then provide more jobs and investment in our minerals sector.

It is a measure that has been well supported by the industry, and I want to acknowledge and recognise the work that those in the industry have done in putting together this program. Chris Cairns, the managing director of Staveling Minerals, has said: 'If you don't drill, you don't discover. It's that simple. I feel the Junior Minerals Exploration Incentive is better targeted and, more importantly, is structured in such a manner that it provides greater benefit to providers of new-risk capital to junior exploration companies. So I say good on you to the Australian government for this vital and well-targeted incentive.'

This builds on a previous incentive put in place, the Exploration Development Incentive, but this particular program will allow for immediate, up-front deductions on a first-in, first-served basis. It will allow companies to better target those shareholders who will be seeking such immediate deductions and will therefore attract more capital and more investment into our minerals sector.