Hello fellow Ozbargainers!
I've started a petition to send to the Australian treasurer Scott Morrison to re-consider the GST on goods costing less than $1000 bought online. This will be done as soon as we reach at least 10,000 petitions.
Please sign the petition and spread the word so that we can all continue to access Amazon.com.
If you care about this cause and your freedom to purchase online, please sign and share this petition
We can only try and see what happens.
A sex scandal could work…
Who wants to take one for the team?
sounds like Barnaby’s new squeeze will do anything for money, you might want to contact her
Frankly, GST should be scrapped altogether! It's a regressive tax — it taxes poorer people more, and it's counterproductive to the economy — it punishes people for spending.
@Scrooge McDuck: I agree, it punishes people for spending, only thing worse is "payroll tax" which taxes people for employing someone … as for the "it taxes poorer people more"… … rich people spend more so I don't think that is true (unless you mean in holistic terms not relative to richer people?)
@Scrooge McDuck: Except that poor people don't actually pay any net tax… if you receive money from Centrelink, health care cards, pension etc - its just going in circles. However your point is correct, essentially Centrelink gives out money so people think "yay - free money"… then they spend some of it and the govt takes it straight back.
I'm no fan of this but you need to consider why this is happening before wasting your time with a petition.
There is not a level playing field at present, and make no mistake lots of retailers are struggling - case in point is the original (non-Kogan) Dick Smith, Masters, Aussie Farmers Direct, Warehouse1, Baby Bounce, Wow Sight & Sound, Oroton, Allphones etc etc…(Ignoring whining Gerry for a minute as he is not helping his own cause… rich man crying poor), even big department stores like Myer are struggling.
These are organisations that employ Australians, who fuel our economy, put food on Aussie tables, and pay taxes, rates / rental here in Australia. What you are asking for is to keep helping the growing number of online businesses ship products into Australia to maintain yet another unfair competitive advantage over our stores (in addition to our payroll taxes, minimum wages & conditions, higher costs of electricity, compliance with regulations, and just generally expensive costs of doing business because we all expect high standards of living and employment!!). Some of these overseas businesses are predators - Amazon US is an example. Some are a bunch of people operating from a shed in China paying abhorrent wages taking advantage of people. Look at some products, you can buy & ship them here for less than the cost of the postage stamp from Australia Post if you tried to do the same from Australia (that's another story for another time).
Its not sustainable - A non-level playing field has no choice but to result in less people employed here, businesses needing to cut corners, less productive economy and ultimately lower Australian standard of living long term. So it has to be levelled up, by one of two means:
(1) Impose GST on goods sold online in Australia including under $1000 so as to be on even terms with bricks & mortar Aussie stores (as proposed); or
(2) Cut GST on ALL goods sold in Australia under $1000 - this is my preferred strategy!! However, this was never going to happen because the Governments of Australia (both sides of politics - Fed & State) are struggling with all those higher standards of living also, people demand new roads, hospitals, education funding, defense, environmental subsidies for emissions reduction etc - our costs keep rising for the government too. The more business goes online / offshore, the less we (we being the people - the government repsent) will have, so the answer is it is time for GST on online purchases under $1000 - get over it. GST goes to the state so state public servants will get it back in their pay packet, or you will be getting that money back when you use a road, school, hospital etc. Don't forget, Aussie tax is still our money, better than it going off shore forever.
Soz
I'm with you. I think it was about time they brought this rule in. It is completely unfair on local businesses to be forced to cover an additional 10% on what could essentially be the same product. All the existing stance did was stunt growth in the Australian workforce. It needs to be a level playing field.
Level playing field, workers pay/rights, regulation (pollution, child labour, etc), safety, cost of production (electricity, taxes, wages), etc, etc … they have no relevance to the GST debate. Adding GST to sub $1000 imported goods changes none of those. What it does, is level the GST requirements with local retailers, making them slightly more competitive. Gerry Harvey’s push for this got him exactly what he wanted … Amazon blocking users. It was never a 10% (GST) price differential sending Harvey Norman customers to Amazon, was it?
This should be a tax at import level ie pay the tax per the invoice to clear customs, not a tax directed at foreign companies, this seems like a copy cat of the foreign citizen tax imposed by US recently but on a much stupider level by Aus gov. Do they really think that online retailers from other countries will charge a separate tax on residents in Australia buying from them and then send it over? They must be kidding themselves.
Charging GST on items wont deter people from buying online that much, the stores in Australia are a ripoff most of the time, and only seem decent when there is a 50% off sale etc.
Australian businesses need to be competitive if not they will lose out on the global market - basically this tax will shut us out from the global market and increase the cost of living - well done to another Liberal Govt initiative (first the NBN and now this)
you actually had it at (2), then you reverted back to the default position which is bend over mate, it's how it is "Get used to it!".
Would love to see a few more ozbargainers downvote the scam that is the australian bureaucracy and their hundreds of thousands blood-sucking parasites
Many of the products I buy overseas have NO Australian (or at least Victorian) equivalent, such as GYW full-grain leather dress shoes for under $800 (from Herring). If RMW made their shoes (not boots here), I'd buy them instead.
ie pay the tax per the invoice to clear customs,
I buy a lot of stuff from AliExpress - mainly electronic components that, if you're lucky enough to be able to find locally, will cost 10x as much and have a $15 shipping charge on top.
The customs declarations are laughably low. Something I paid USD$20 for will be labelled with a value of $2. (No, I do not ask them to declare as gift or any other fraud, they just always write either their cost or some made up low number for whatever reason).
The cost for Aus Post or whoever to collect 20c from me is bound to be higher than 20c, although it might be good for employment ;)
Like all other political parties.
There are different degrees of bad, unfortunately we're stuck with one of the worst right now, if there's a silver lining it's being thankful we don't live in the US. So, yay, I guess?
@chumlee: We've already had a few of those - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_killings_under_Communist_…
Another option would be to move to Venezuela.
3% isn't it? (Of a country's citizens to rise up and oust a government?)
We need to oust BOTH sides.
They’re as bad as each other … the rallying cry of those who never read policy, focus on click-bait headlines and tune-in to shock rants on radio/tv … and then vote for Trump, Hanson, Joyce, etc.
We do have some really crappy leaders that keep getting elected because they push themselves as being different to the ‘elites in Canberra’. Just look at Barnaby Joyce. Seperate the populists and there are some decent people in Canberra, and plenty of decent people contesting elections, often unsuccessfully.
@domcc1: I think he was referring more to a government like the one that existed in the Weimar Republic, the SPD rather than Communism. But you can continue your anti-communist circle-jerk if you want
Not much difference between Labour and Liberal today. They are all bad.
I don't totally agree, but either way it's ok, because there are still other options available to you.
Liberals or any government for that matter didnt want to do this, blame Gerry Harvey!
Gerry Harvey cannot legislate anything - he did influence those who could by lining their pockets heavily. I will never ever give a cent of my money to Hardly Normal, that's for sure.
Congratulations on Gerry for f**ing the GetUp hipsters who made false claims about his products. REVENGE is sweet!
bribes Donations FTW!
In all fairness to get the ALP attention you need to be a CFMEU thug. Anyone who watched the last question time would have noticed that. Dozens of questions about their poor union mates raid.
from an entity with communist links.
His website has a form. You can contact him and let him know your thoughts:
If he's your member:
https://www.scottmorrison.com.au/contact-scott/
For the rest of Australia:
https://treasury.gov.au/the-department/contact-us/ministeria…
Well, if you're talking about the liberals, even that won't work (donations). We'd all need to be in a high income bracket - they might allow it for big business and / or high income earners. Although they probably already have a loophole there - possibly via tax return.
I'm sure if we flood ScoMo's office with $0.50 garbage off Aliexpress, he should get the point pretty quickly that we're quite cheesed off with this measure. Probably more so if a huge number of people spending $20 each (that's 400 separate orders) to flood his office…..wouldn't take long to fill his office with containers upon containers of things.
If we send him too many Eneloops, I wonder if anyone will be charged
The HARSHREALITY is that they can
Don't let facts get in the way of your steadfast views. The battery installation has worked remarkably well.
You're right - it's a foolish view. The battery also powers the nation - https://www.gladstoneobserver.com.au/news/what-does-elon-mus…
I like this idea but humbly suggest we all send the same item, something that carries our disdain while begin utterly useless.
Banana phones.
Or crotchless panties.
Scott Morrison toilet paper?
@buckster:
ScoMo has been toilet paper worthy since 2015
https://prestoninstitute.files.wordpress.com/2015/02/scott-t…
taken from this story
https://prestoninstitute.wordpress.com/2015/02/22/strongsoft…
I like them (crotchless panties). I think you're making a value judgement :)
Suspicious material will require individual lab test
You know they will just dump the in the garbage ?
Maybe we can get the sender to mark $1000+ values so that he has to pay GST + Customs fee on it to even receive it the $0.50 rubbish? :)
And all different sized items. So they have to open every single one to be certain they really aren't something they ordered.
That may require some coordination between the participants in this plan.
Can we claim GST refund at the airport for all those things?
Whilst there….. could someone please have the honourable minister remove the top two tax tiers?
He's already working on that
as soon as we reach at least 10,000 petitions.
That's a lot of petitions for us to sign…..
Sign this scam and all ScoMo will do is add your name to i360's latest campaigns, with a whole bunch of data about your;
… all neatly scraped from your OzB comment history in one pass.
And more trolling/forum spam for us to wade through in the lead-up to each election.
Tell ScoMo anything (just like your local member) and s/he will use it for their own gain, not yours, whilst sending you information tailored to make you believe the opposite. Almost every major party MP is told to fill their dataset as part of their general duties around protecting their donors best interests.
My advice: Don't waste valuable time trying to change little things. What we need is a single parliament made accountable for a single legal system (ie not responsible for fiddling/wrecking/srewing it up), a series of Rights enshrined and a new 1 page constitution, a re-written tax act, and automatically triggered referendums on all issues debated in parliament for more than a week or so. And most importantly, and as a Right, an Australian GDPR.
And as Mal Meninga said today, ban plastic bags! (although even better than this would be to incrementally ban or make difficult the use of all dangerous pollutants, bit by bit)
IOW: A semblance of Democracy instead of a never-ending fight in an outback pub, and a shi*tload of money saved. Move Canberra to Sydney. Move the ATO and the Reserve Bank to Mebourne, and nationalise the backend of the Banking system so Banking brands just resell services like the electricity companies sell energy. That way, they can't screw up our accounts and keep scamming/skimming so much off the top as the national government is responsible for systems, governance and risk.
21 signatures? This needs to be shared on other platforms as well.
Read up until they said "probably not". Don't remember what they were now, but I remember seeing a few petitions that did effect change a few years ago.
However in this situation I assume it's far too late to have any effect, and there's certain statements that could have been put into letters to politicians that by law REQUIRES them to reply. Any other letter they can completely ignore. I saw a book about it once.
Done…little expectations but if you do nothing you tend to get…..nothing as your just reward. Thanks OP.
If you share to 5 other people you know and ask them to share to 5 others….I reckon we'll hit 10,000 pretty quick
dude its doesn't matter. I just signed it because the op put some effort in to even start one. Unless there are like 10M, nothing is going to happen. Have you signed the NBN petition from 2016?!? it had 277k and nothing happened. In fact NBN got delayed and delayed. Only ACCC was able to intervene and that's because it was a consumer issue.
I think the petition would be more convincing with more than 5 different last names.
Oh snap!
More than 5 different last names?
How racist you have to be to suggest Asians have only 5 different last names.
Your feigned outrage is obvious, you're clearly still butthurt from this:
I see you have plenty of time to spend on ozbargain forum side tracking topics.
I guess you have finished your free online course
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/106243
While relying on free meals provided by Sydney restaurants
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/110676
Or have you abandoned the free course and gone gangster instead
https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/114671
I see you have plenty of time to spend on ozbargain forum side tracking topics.
Terrible comeback. Obvious butthurt is obvious
Thanks for the stalking. It directed me to a comment on one of those threads that referenced a thread I created on Whirlpool. Great times :)
Is Gerry Harvey going to sign?
This is the Gerry Tax.
Gerry Harvey loves this deal. It will coerce many Australian shoppers to buy from him instead of online.
Meanwhile small businesses will be screwed over by the blocking of Amazon and other international retailers, because they used the very same avenues as consumers to purchase the broad range of goods that are not available here via HN/JB/Myer/etc. That drives more sales to bigger chains like HN.
A small subset of savvy buyers will figure out alternatives like VPNs and dropshipping to continue to buy from US/UK retailers, but for most Aussies this is probably the end (for now) of our love affair with online shopping.
You just have to pay the politicians more than Gerry Harvey is.
Hmm does this mean if I buy a grey import fone and take it overseas I can still claim the gst back then?
Well done mate. Shared.
You need a catchy jingle, like Donna Martin's graduation.
I dont think a petition is going to do much, there should of been a concerted effort about a year ago where people contacted their government representative, this is too little way too late.
Appreciate the motion but we're just a grain of sand compared to what the real purposes the GST will serve. It's a shot but hey it's a bit of a long shot.
Lol. You can't remove a source of revenue from the government with a petition.
Revolution with bloodshed, maybe.
It isn't a source of revenue, it's costing more to administer than it will recoup.
That's why the limit was $1000 in the first place.
Revenue is the amount collected before costs.
This is revenue. It may cost more but factor in political favours and the ever so marketable "creating jobs" slogan.
Get Neil or Scotty to throw a link to this on the front OzB page.
Or you know, vote in someone who would remove it.
such as?
Ricky Muir!
We should be referring to this tax as the Gerryharvey Suckup Tax … where you develop tax policy to suit a party donor by taxing consumers shopping elsewhere in the vain hope it might drive them across to his overpricing business
I'd prefer wasting my time posting this than signing a useless petition.
I'll add that these international corporations need to start paying tax before I'll sign anything.
gst is a fair tax that goes to the states.
all but one
Unfortunately you won't get Amazon US back. This is just the perfect cover for the ploy by Amazon to shift to thier global platforms. The Aust Govt are not Robinson Caruso with making OS corps tax collectors.
Is Robinson Caruso any relative of Robinson Crusoe?
I thought he meant David Caruso, famed for his intense portrayal of a gritty detective in the little-watched spin off, CSI:GST-AU !
Any whirlpool mods wanna sticky as a cross post? Could be allies on this issue.
A Very Important change that this Govt will be bringing in after the next Election,
which will cost us more than any GST on on line purchases.
They are going to add a $5.00 package tax to everything you buy, and have delivered.
So you could buy three small items from say Bang Good, which each costs less than say $3.00.
Ban Good send each of the items separately, (as they are shipped from three different suppliers)
Then when they reach Aust, the Govt will charge you GST on each, plus a $5.00 packet tax on each.
So your original good value purchase from overseas, which was costing you $9.00 post free,
will now cost you $9.90 plus $15.00 totaling $24.90, almost 3 times the cost.
Dont listen to any of the crying poor retailers like Hardly Normal, cause they still buy everything
from overseas, and with their massive buying power, they purchase for 200% less than we can.
This is also clearly visible when you purchase from Aldi, and see the same or similar appliances
for 60% less than what Hardly are trying to sell us……………….
No they're not.
https://www.sbs.com.au/news/no-plan-for-5-parcel-tax-dutton
(not that I'd trust a word to come out of his arse, but still)
To get his attention you will need to make a reasonable monetary donation to the Liberal Party. They don't speak any other language