"If the government got nothing out of the tax breaks why on earth would they give them?"

Votes. Donations to the party. There is no need to give tax breaks for exploration. Market mechanisms are more than capable of rewarding exploration.

"Exploration needs to be encouraged if you're going to find more resources and this is not limited to oil or coal."

No it doesn't. Resources will be sought without 'encouragement' from the government. That's like saying we will starve if the government doesn't grow the food for us.

Envireconmic, please don't concern yourself with the above "hot-heads." Lets focus on your questions instead.
In relation to the timing of peak oil, well I'm afraid nobody really knows, although it's widely believed to be before 2030. Our Prime Minister himself acknowledges 2035 as the date. Guesses as to exactly when oil will peak ranges from around 2000 right through to 2050. Some oil companies state oil will never peak in the forseeable future, but they may be a little biased, he,he! Unfortunately, we'll only recognise the peak well after it's happened.
The thing to realise about peak oil is the fact that we're NEVER going to run out of the stuff. "Peak" simply means that we've used exactly half of what was in the ground in the first place. That in turn means that what is left will be harder to find, more expensive to extract and will eventually not be able to match World wide requirements. This in turn equates to everything becoming increasingly expensive since the World is so reliant on cheap oil.
The upside is that other forms of energy will be developed giving rise to many more jobs. Should that fail and humanity realises that no known energy source can match that of oil, then we'll be forced into a lifestyle of less and less oil based products and more and more human intensive labour efforts to maintain some semblance of survival.
Doesen't sound too bad does it?

Well alzo old son before you go calling people liars I suggest you check the facts, try googling "value for oil" link 11 that is first link 2nd page, submission to Senate inquiry.
I can't find worldwide evidence yet, bit I am looking.
Unlike you I don't go around making stuff up.

alanpoi if you watched ABC's "Crude" last night you would have heard that oil produces 100 times more energy than is used to dig it up. Energy has a monetary value. Sounds like great value to me.

"...oil produces 100 times more energy than is used to dig it up. Energy has a monetary value."

And it was created for us - for free! We did not have to spend any time or money actually concentrating the enormous amount of energy available in the stuff, which is the main advantage it has over all other primary energy sources. People talk about so-called "free energy" which is essentially a perpetual energy scam; however oil is the real deal.

Mercury, it still costs to access it.

Yes we might run out of oil, but think about how we came to work out how to use oil in the first place (for those that did watch Crude). We ran out of sperm whales. We are an innovatice race. When oil runs out (or gets uneconomic) we will be forced to do something else, and we will find it. Eg Biodisel and ethanol. And as far as fuel goes, that at least is carbon neutral (eg grow and capture carbon from the air, then burn it and put it back).