Joe Hockey (North Sydney, Liberal Party, Shadow Treasurer) Share this | Hansard source

I move amendment (3) as circulated in my name:

(3) Schedule 3, page 12 (line 1) to page 18 (line 29), omit the Schedule.

This amendment seeks to excise schedule 3 from this bill which extends the immediate deductibility of exploration expenditure provided to mining and petroleum energy explorers. The coalition opposes this measure because it is linked to the government's mining tax. This measure was flagged by the government as part of the final design of the minerals resource rent tax, and the Treasurer has linked over $15 billion worth of expenditure to a mining tax that is hardly raising a dollar, which is quite an achievement! It now looks as though he has no money to pay for this. Prudent economic management would say that it should be opposed. I encourage all members of the Labor Party to join with us in seeking to have this excised from the bill.

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