Tax on Internet Sales is Economically Irrational

Calls by big business in Australia for the Goods and Services Tax to be extended to cover Internet purchases less than a thousand dollars is just sour grapes on their part. Only 3 per cent of all Australian purchases are for Internet sales and many of these are local Australian purchases. The Government has said the cost of collection would be far more than the income gained.

Such a tax would be like re-implementing tariff barriers. It could certainly be interpreted that way. Big business is not calling for new trade barriers is it? It has taken half a century to reduce barriers in the car industry. Even now some obstacles to free trade remain in motor vehicle production.

Australian businesses have to lift their game. Go into a department store and try to find someone to give assistance. You can't find anybody! Staff has been cut to ridiculously low levels.

If you do find a lower price for a product on the Internet from a company overseas there is still the post and packaging cost to add on. When you do your sums you are only a few dollars better off. People shop online mainly for convenience. For example, in the US a Samsung fridge sells for $1,385. In Australia the same refrigerator goes for $2,099. People would not buy it online because of the cost and problems of getting it to Australia. Anyway, the US fridge will not run on 240V electricity supply.

The real issue is Australian business had it too good. Before the Internet, retailers had a closed market. Now trade is becoming global and they don't like it. It is well known that Woolworths and Coles keep their prices high where branches are located in "exclusive" parts of cities. It is about time this practice stopped.

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~~~~~Trade Business~~~~~

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We Have the Government We Deserve

Well we have a government. There could be shaky times ahead but it seems the independents did the rational thing. Supporting the coalition would have given them only a one vote working majority. It was assumed all three independents would go one way. With the two independents Labor has two votes in hand under the new agreed system with Bob Katter voting against the government. Bob Katter is a real National Party person - no ifs no buts. He would have known what the others were going to do. For all his talking his electorate got nothing. He obviously knew which way he would fall all along. It was all show.

Ironically, the Coalition has given Labor an extra vote by having a member of the opposition as deputy speaker with no voting power. Tony Abbott was not thinking clearly when he made that decision. Not giving in to this could have swung the two independents the other way. The Western Australian National must have had an effect. He said he would not block supply for the Coalition. His decision to sit on the cross bench gave the impression that he was not fully supportive though.

After the treasury analysed the Coalition election promises, throwing more money at the independents had no effect. A brand new hospital was clearly far too much for the Tasmanian representative. It seems Tony Abbott had lost credibility. His behavior in the election came back to haunt him. Something fishy was about when his promises were not costed initially.

The real "swinger" was the National Broadband Network. If the Coalition had just said it would review the NBN it would have won office without this fiasco. You can sometimes be too stubborn for your own good. Many have said if labor had not brought the mining tax in the coalition would have done so. It was like the GST - a Labor idea adopted by the coalition. Pity Tony Abbott was not more like John Howard who saw some good in Labor concepts.

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Coalition Election Campaign Paid for by Mining Companies

Australia's new mining tax gets support from Nobel prizewinner Joseph Stiglitz. He says mining companies have too much say in Australian politics. This is particularly the case when one sector of politics, namely the Coalition, gets free adds for its re-election to government. The only way to "equalise" this situation is for unions to dig deep and pay for Labor ads. It is obvious who has more to spend - the ones who owe back tax to the Australian people. Over the last few years output and income has gone through the roof for the mining industry.

If the Coalition wins office then Australians will pay the tax foregone to mining companies. Executives will be driven in luxury limousines to the bank to check their bank balances. Then on the way home they will check in for $1,000 meals paid for by their mining companies, out of income before it becomes profit on the books.

Promises have been made on cutting company tax on businesses. But where is the money going to come from? It will come from higher income taxes on the majority of Australians.

Will Tony Abbot break the unwritten rule of new governments - never remove a tax put in place by an earlier administration. Labor condemned John Howard for introducing the GST. Yet it wasn't removed when Labor won government.

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