Online is where the price is right

There’s a debate (maybe more of a campaign) raging in Australia right now about the impact of online shopping on local retailers. Buying your golf-clubs from Amazon avoids the universal ten per cent sales tax chargeable in this country as long as those clubs come in under a $1,000 price point.

Retailers and their spokespeople have been lining up to persuade TV news audiences of the inevitable catastrophe awaiting our economy unless we tax online imports equally to their stores. And their point would be a fair one if it wasn’t so disingenuous. That’s because the price difference between online and store bought goods in this country goes well beyond a mere ten per cent, and photographers feel this more keenly than most.

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It’s expensive being Australian

Australian photographers are getting ripped off by global manufacturers who set dramatically different prices for different regions. In many cases we’re paying through the nose relative to our American friends for the very same goods and services and I would like to know why.

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