Re: The great Aussie rip off?
 

2 mil x 6.8% in CBA / NAB / WBC /ANZ shares = $136,000 (with $62,200 tax credit ) $198,000 round of the tax , another $24,000
Still leaves a modest $112,000

I think I could scrape by on that

Re: The great Aussie rip off?
 

I saw a few minutes of the program and it appeared to me to be broadly correct.

I have personal experience in the last few months: a fastening system in Oz $13.50 per metre, in the US US0.66c per metre (converted to metres and including tax.

An irrigation pop-up head: $64 here and the same part in the US US$11.95 - available for $9.95 on the internet plus tax and postage.

On many items we are not talking a few percent, we are into many times the price. Much of it is due to the stranglehold of importers which stifles competition and choice.

Re: The great Aussie rip off?
 

Yes much the same for us, many of the things relevant to our work are 2 or 3 times more expensive here. We were looking at Aldi prices last night, UK and here and many here were 50 to 75% more.

Re: The great Aussie rip off?
 

I agree that things like this can be incredibly expensive here - out of all proportion. Other things not so:
Samsung UA60D8000 TV - offered to me for $3120 by The Good Guys a few weeks ago.
Samsung UE60D8000 TV (UK model) - cheapest internet price $4790 (GBP3249 at Comet).
There are other things too - VW cars for instance.
A lot of the hobby stuff I buy locally is now only 10-20% more expensive than the US, other stuff is much more expensive here though.

It's a mixed bag. A lot of stuff that is radically more expensive here can be easily bought on the internet. It's stuff that is hard to ship that is the problem.

Re: The great Aussie rip off?
 

Talking of the hard to ship stuff does anyone have any ideas about how to get stuff across cheaply? I want quite a bit of sailing stuff from the US or Europe - can you hire a very small piece of a container?