htaccess issue with .+ and .*

RewriteEngine On
RewriteRule ^(.+)$ /?path=http://domain.com.au/$1 [R=301,L]

The codes above could redirect
http://localhost/a/b/c.htm to
http://localhost/?path=http://domain.com.au/a/b/c.htm

The issue is we couldn't use .* instead.