The push by some Australian retailers for the government to apply GST on overseas retail purchases continues in earnest, despite the cost of the proposals.
Gst
Dick Smith backs Gerry Harvey’s call for online GST
Entrepreneur Dick Smith has backed electronics mogul Gerry Harvey in his fight to have GST applied to online purchases from overseas.
Productivity needs a shot in the arm — why not a GST boost?
Iin a political climate where people are craving leadership, and Australia’s productivity needs a desperate shot in the arm, advocating a tax swap should be opportune, writes Adam Creighton, a research fellow at The Centre For Independent Studies.
States sing the same old tune at tax forum
This week’s tax summit — sorry, forum — comes with low expectations, and so far seems to be meeting them.
Taking up the Whittaker challenge: examining The Daily Tele’s GST coverage
This week, in the latest salvo in The Daily Telegraph’s war with the Gillard government, baby-faced editor Paul Whittaker decided to lay down a challenge to the office of communications minister Stephen Conroy.
Crikey Says: Winning
Remember the library?
Crikey Says: Crikey says: helps to have a long memory
Put it down to another case of the Perpetual Present to which some members of the Press Gallery are so prone…
Carbon pricing: is it really the GST revisited?
A new tax, praised by policy nerds but distrusted by the general population: it’s not hard to pick the analogy between carbon pricing and the GST.
War on the middle class? More a war on our kids
The reaction to the budget shows Labor can’t win on middle-class welfare. But Coalition complaints about the lack of a carbon price don’t stack up.
Checking the docket on a carbon price
Treasury’s figures on the impact of a carbon price undermine the case for compensating middle-income households.
Political snippets: Richard Farmer’s Chunky Bits: NSW Labor melting at the polls
The meaningful polls. With minds at last as concentrated on voting as they are ever likely to be, this is the time to start taking the opinion polls seriously. And unless the people of New South Wales have been party to one of the greatest ever deceptions in the history of political polling, Labor is […]
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Stuart MacGill’s fast food sponsorship wrong ‘un
Crikey readers have their say.
Retailers and the loophole that wasn’t there
The retail lobby against the internet has successfully seeded the idea that there is a GST “loophole.” But no such loophole exists and and if they think it does, they’re in a lot of trouble.
GST $1000 threshold: retailers’ share in more trouble than Harvey’s image
Online purchasing, whether it is from Australian or foreign websites, will transform retail in the coming decades, delivering lower prices, greater choice and, almost inevitably, fewer local retail jobs, writes Dr Richard Denniss, executive director of The Australia Institute.
Just another form of parallel importing
Whether it be Woolworths and Coles in food and liquor or Woolies, Coles, JB and Harvey Norman in electrical goods or Myer and David Jones in department stores, the power is in the hands of the major retailers. How sensible the government isn’t stampeded to change, writes Richard Farmer.
Coalition strains in the UK
The coalition in the UK between Conservatives and Liberal Democrats struck Richard Farmer as mightily strange from the moment it was formed. It’s like the Australian Democrats supporting the GST — the party never recovered from that.
Your Say: Daily Mail readers' feedback: Why Federalism is stuffed
One Crikey reader writes that all the brouhaha, posturing, chest beating, and COAGulation, shows what is wrong with federalism. Plus, readers weigh in on the GST, the ABC and human rights.
Fighting for the states’ right to exist
Kevin Rudd’s political agenda was wrapped up in a hospital plan. The historic health reform deal was only partly about health and the GST, but more about fighting for the states’ rights and their right to exist.
Kohler: Bugger health, this is all about Howard’s GST stuff-up
The debate about national control over health and hospitals is just Rudd’s Trojan tax horse, writes Alan Kohler. Kevin Rudd wants to wrestle back the GST from the states who’ve just wasted all the cash John Howard recklessly gave them.
Stott Despoja: Winning Senate friends and influencing cross-bench people
Publicly attacking Senators who block government plans is a fairly novel way of winning their support, when all they need is a bit of charming, explains former senator Natasha Stott Despoja.
From gatekeeper to gridlock — a brief history of Labor obstructionism
Quit the high horse act on Senate obstructionism, Labor. As the record of the Howard Government shows, what goes around comes around.
Gittins: Just because you don’t understand it, doesn’t mean the ETS is bad
Remember the GST scare campaign? We’re seeing a similar thing now with Rudd’s ETS and Abbott’s alternative plan is just puffery. Don’t let fear of change drive us, writes Ross Gittins.
Great myths in Australian politics: GST almost cost Howard ’98 election
The GST didn’t nearly lose John Howard the election in 1998, instead it’s the only reason he stayed in office. Just check out the Newspoll ratings before the GST announcement, says Stephen Spencer.
