Gerry Harvey might have taken a back seat in his Retail Coalition’s campaign against the GST exemption for goods purchased overseas, but it seems smaller retailers are stepping up to carry on the campaign.
The National Retail Association, which says it has 3,700 members including companies from the hardware and health and beauty sector, has joined the Retail Coalition launched last week by a group of large retailers including Harvey Norman, Myer, David Jones and Solomon Lew.
The Coalition wants the GST exemption on goods purchased from overseas for $1,000 or less to be dumped and claims retail jobs have been put under threat by a wave of consumers heading online to shop at overseas websites.
Despite a massive consumer backlash against Harvey, Lew and other members of the Coalition, Black says the NRA wants to ensure that smaller retailers have their voices heard in this debate and that it is not “dominated by discussions around whether large retailers deserve some break”.
“The Australian community will pay an escalating price for the failure to address this blatant inequity,” Black said in a statement.
“This price will result from GST lost, from duties and tariffs foregone, from customs fees and charges foregone. From job losses, payroll tax revenue reductions, and the cost to the economy of inevitable business failures.”
However, the NRA is now at odds with the other peak body for small retailers in Australia, the Australian Retailers Association.
Late last week, it set up a new organisation, the Fair Imports Alliance, to distance itself from the big retailers and push for the Government to specifically target retailers who might be exploiting the GST-exempt threshold to import for goods for resale, rather than cracking down on bargain-conscious individual shoppers.
The Alliance is also backing the Government’s plan to hold off on any law changes until a Productivity Commission inquiry is held into the issue later this year.
The NRA has said it will provide staffing and lobbying resources to the Retail Coalition.
James was the editor and publisher of SmartCompany and LeadingCompany for five years. He is now the Australian Financial Review‘s companies & markets editor, and a former BRW editor.
