Swerv-o

Uh oh, this doesn't look good:

GST on all imported goods


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GarryP

Your friendly neighbourhood liberal party - busy doing evil where it can.

astera

Oh my, when would this kick in if they push forward with it?

GarryP

They are going forward with it, and 1 July 2017

Your best hope is to make its curtailment an election issue.

astera

Will be long gone by then.

Just wondering how else they can level the playing field between local and overseas online stores. The current setup clearly favours the latter (and of course us!) and is something of an anomaly in the developed world. Not that I'm complaining...

Swerv-o

Well perhaps the local stores could understand that competition occurs and that they need to be competitive instated of asking the government to prop up their outdated business models.

This has really annoyed me - as the government will pipe this as an equity measure when in reality its a broken election promise not to change the GST. Its quite clear that the political class actually has no real regard or respect for the masses, particularly when it comes to tax revenues.


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GarryP

I do wonder if the 2017 date is so that its past the next election.

And as said before, GST is a regressive tax that needs to be got rid of, not extended.

Oh and yes the local competition needs to buck their ideas up and stop being 20 years behind the curve. At the same time the terrible performance of auspost is a massive part of the problem. Sensible government action would address that such that free postage on online orders was the norm.

astera

Not really. I mean there is nothing outdated about being an online retailer. But how can you compete if you need to charge GST but your competitors, who aren't even based in the country, don't?

The US doesn't allow foreign companies to undermine local ones like this. Neither does Canada. Neither does any EU nation.

Don't get me wrong, I'm glad we can order from overseas like this. Especially in this rigged-marketplace where everything from prawns to pharmaceuticals operates like a cartel.

And at the end of the day I think it's just another money grab which is the main motivating factor and not creating a level playing field for businesses.

GarryP

More your base of fulfilment operations to Honk Kong and not charge GST, exorbitant auspost fees, etc.

Of course, most Aus online retailers still couldn't cut it.

astera

But this would merely be making use of an anomaly that only applies here and is supposedly going to get "plugged." It's not the general way forward, the next step in retail evolution, as it wouldn't work in almost any other developed nation.

I think the issue is that the Australian market is still not that developed as over the years, without offshore internet shopping to compete with, it didn't really have that drive to more forward. It was closed-in, hard to access from outside, treated like a divide&conquer territory for various corporations, and now it cannot compete in today's global village where you can buy something from the other side of the world at a competitive price, pay online, and get it shipped over quickly and cheaply.

Alfresco

Doesn't look good.

Hope it doesn't happen.

GarryP

Retail in Australia is very weird, and I think the reality that they couldn't just copy what others were doing was the main reason it's failed to move forward. It's shaped by the tyranny of distance just as the global market has broken the tyranny of distance as a constraint. I blame that mainly on the dead hand of auspost, and the lack of free delivery.

However, if they are sensible then the setup of Australia is ideal for the next revolutionary step (drone delivery) since it's basically got 80% of the entire market in 6 cities. It would actually be a sensible role for Darwin - you import goods to there, distribute to the cities by air overnight, then deliver by drone with maybe one store for the entire city.

Swerv-o

Sadly it looks like it's a done deal. It's not so much the money that annoys me, it's the fact that it will pretty much be the death knell for door to door deliveries, plus there will no doubt be an absurd processing fee to assess the GST impact on your parcel.

I buy stacks of things from overseas purely because they simply aren't available here - if Australia had a nicely mature market with lots of availability, then I'd feel more comfortable, yet it doesn't. It has a tiny selection of stuff, and I am very often forced to buy stuff from overseas because I simply can't get it here.


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Alfresco

Yep, indeed. I buy lots too especially on eBay usually from overseas like China and HK.

Swerv-o

This is the thing that annoys me in this entire debate. The government (of both flavours) and its lobbyists keep comparing Australia to the USA, UK, the EU etc but in reality these countries have a mature market place with lots of choice and availability. Australia doesn't have this. We have a limited selection and are often forced to buy overseas just to get the things that we want.


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