Mr TUCKEY (2:59 PM) —Will the Prime Minister confirm that the North West Shelf gas project, excluded by the Hawke-Keating government from the Petroleum Resource Rent Tax, will now be included in the government’s great big new tax on mining and will therefore be taxed at a higher rate than all other offshore gas fields being developed in Australia?

Mr RUDD (Prime Minister) —The member for O’Connor rightly points to those which are operating under that particular regime. That is why they are currently engaged in detailed consultations with the Treasury panel and that will continue.