Aussie govt to tap WA LNG projects for extra $6 billion in tax, page-9

Is my reading correct.  The change of law will not allow you to apply loss making exploration losses against profits from profitable exploration.  Is that really true.  If you lose on a project you just wear the loss.  If you profit on a project you pay profit on that, without regard to any offsetting losses.

If true, that is really strange.  Does the govt make Woolies produce profit / loss on different sections of their store.  Or more correctly, with Wesfarmers, are they no longer allowed to apply losses from one brand to their overall accounts.

I do have a bit of a mantra that when the govt 'gets involved' it turns out bad for everyone.  I am sure there is some fair method to give monies back to Australia for the extraction of its resources.  But I only read 'govt sees way to get $6 bill'.