2012/15: Internet shopping: should more online purchases be taxed?
What they said...
'Consumers enjoy shopping online because it offers them choice, convenience and often discounts far beyond 10%'
Bill Shorten, the Australian Assistant Treasurer
'We've always been of the view that there's not a level playing field if offshore retailers can escape the goods and services tax and import duties'
Bernie Brookes, Myers chief executive
The issue at a glance
On September 6, 2012, the results of a federal taskforce study were released. The study supports lowering the $1000 threshold for the value of imported goods on which the GST can be imposed. The study claims that the cost of collecting the tax revenue may not be as high as previously suggested by a Productivity Commission report.
The study into the GST threshold by the Low Value Parcel Processing Taskforce was released by the Assistant Treasurer, David Bradbury.
The Australian Retailers Association has greeted the report enthusiastically. It and other large Australian retailers have been campaigning for several years to have all or most of those goods imported into Australia as online purchases attract the GST. They have argued that the difficulties that the Australian retail sector is currently experiencing are in large part the result of the unfair competition from untaxed goods purchased online from overseas suppliers.
The consumer magazine, Choice, and other consumer groups have challenged this view. They have argued that there are fundamental problems with the retailing price structure in Australia which result in the Australian consumer paying more. While this continues to be the case, they claim, Australians will continue to shop online for lower priced goods.
Background
The operation of Australia's GST
Australia's GST (goods and services tax) is an indirect tax collected from businesses as a proportion of the price paid by consumers for goods and services supplied by the business.
Australia's GST is also payable by a person who imports goods. There is a $1000 lower limit or threshold on the value of goods which can be imported into Australia via online order before the GST is applied. This means that currently goods with a value of less than $1000 can be imported into Australia without being taxed. This is because the cost of administering the tax on goods of a lower price has been judged to be more than the taxation revenue that would be raised.
In 2011 an Australian Productivity Commission's report judged that the low value threshold for GST is not a main factor affecting the international competitiveness of Australian retailers. The Commission found there were valid grounds for imposing the GST on goods with a value of less than $1000 but that it is currently not cost-effective to do so.
The Commission calculated that lowering the threshold to $100, for example, could collect around $500 million in revenue, but at a cost of $1.2 billion in administration and compliance costs.
However, the Commission noted that if improvements were made to the cost of processing international parcels, the Government would be able to lower the threshold and impose the GST on imported goods of a lesser value.
In September 2012 the Low Value Parcel Processing Taskforce made a series of recommendations regarding ways in which the Australian government could more efficiently tax goods imported into Australia in response to online orders. One of the potential solutions warranting future consideration is the collection of duty and/or GST by financial intermediaries.
Internet information
On October 19, 2011, Inside Retail published an overview of a Times report arguing that the shopping mall is not in the dire condition that many commentators have suggested. The full text of this article can be found at http://www.insideretail.com.au/IR/IRNews/Reports-of-death-greatly-exaggerated-2819.aspx
On January 4, 2012, the Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, claimed that retailers were exaggerating the impact that online purchases had had on depressed Christmas shopping in bricks and mortar stores.
This text can be accessed at http://www.smartcompany.com.au/retail/20110104-government-accuses-big-retailers-of-exaggerating-claims-that-overseas-retail-sales-hurt-christmas-trade.html
On April 29, 2012, Power Retail published a news report titled '50,000 retail job losses predicted by NRA - online to blame' The full text can be found at http://www.powerretail.com.au/news/50000-retail-job-losses-predicted-by-nra-online-to-blame/
On July 30, 2012, The Sydney Morning Herald carried a report which claimed that Australians are paying too much for tech products, in part because of the evaluated prices charged by overseas suppliers.
The full text of this report can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/aussies-gouged-on-tech-prices-inquiry-hears-20120730-23991.html
On August 2, 2012, The Punch published a comment titled 'Shopping centres must change before it's too late' by Frank Zumbo, an Associate Professor within the School of Business Law and Taxation at the University of New South Wales.. The full text can be found at http://www.thepunch.com.au/articles/Shopping-centres-must-change-before-its-too-late/
In September 2012, Price Waterhouse Coopers released their annual Digital Media Review. It includes discussion of some of the factors that have contributed to the growth in online shopping. The full text can be accessed at http://www.pwc.com.au/industry/retail-consumer/publications/digital-media-research/index.htm
On September 2, 2012, The Sydney Morning Herald published a background piece which treated an online survey of 1000 Australians conducted in June by the media buying group MagnaGlobal which presents information on the extent of 'showrooming', that is, consumers trialling products in stores that they the purchase online. The full text of this article can be found at http://www.smh.com.au/digital-life/digital-life-news/if-the-cap-fits-not-all-are-happy-to-buy-online-20120901-2574a.html
On September 7, 2012, the online academic discussion site, The Conversation, published a comment by its editor, Charis Palmer who interviewed Rick Krever,
Professor and Director of the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute at Monash University, and John Freebairn Professor, Department of Economics at University of Melbourne. The article concludes that a new GST for online shoppers is unlikely.
The full text of these interviews and comment can be found at http://theconversation.edu.au/new-gst-for-online-shoppers-unlikely-experts-say-9408
On September 15, 2012, The Telegraph published an article titled 'Retailers push government to tax online sales' which outlined the continued pressure from large retailers and the National Retailers Association for the government to impose the GST on all goods imported via the Internet.
The full text of this article can be found at http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-news/retailers-push-government-to-tax-online-sales/story-e6freuzi-1226474467209
Arguments against taxing more on-line purchases
1. Australian retailers often charge more than their overseas competitors
It has been claimed that introducing a GST on more imported online goods will not stop Australian shoppers from continuing to buy online from overseas suppliers. The problem is that many Australian retailers simply charge more for the goods they sell and this encourages Australian consumers to look elsewhere.
An article published in Crikey in May, 2011, included the following comparisons between prices charged for goods in the United States and the prices charged Australian consumers.
A LG refrigerator costing $2500 at Harvey Norman is available to American consumers from Amazon for just under US$1500. A Sharp microwave costing $199 at Harvey Norman is at US$85 from Amazon and US$74 at Walmart. A $150 drill at Bunnings is available for under US$130 at Amazon. Pentax lenses costing nearly $850 in Australia are available for US$510 from a United States site. High-end audio equipment generally costs some three times as much in Australia as overseas.
In a study of more than 200 prices, the Australian consumer magazine Choice identified 'an approximate 50 per cent price difference between what Australians and US consumers pay for more or less identical products', such as music downloads, games, software and computer hardware.
It has been claimed that part of the reason for this is that many overseas suppliers charge Australian retailers higher prices. The Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy has noted that the primary cause of higher prices paid by Australians were 'decisions by international distributors'.
Choice has similarly stated that the most likely cause of higher prices was 'international price discrimination' whereby multinationals were 'setting the wholesale cost of their products higher for particular markets such as Australia'.
2. Collecting online taxes is difficult and uneconomic
It has been claimed that imposing a GST on imported goods purchased online would be very hard to implement and may well rise very little once the cost of administration was factored in.
The federal Assistant Treasurer David Bradbury has said the problem with lowering the GST threshold was the fact that the retailers involved were overseas.
Mr Bradbury has claimed, 'So even if we pass a law in which we say, "You have to register for GST", the difficulty we have is when they thumb their nose at us and say "Well, we're not going to. At that point we have an enforcement issue.'
In 2011, the Productivity Commission found that any extra revenue gains from lowering the GST threshold for overseas purchases would be outweighed by the cost of collecting it.
The Productivity Commission found that lowering the GST threshold to $20 on imported goods would raise in excess of $500 million in tax revenues, but the cost of parcel processing using the current system would jump by almost $1.6 billion - three times the additional revenue collected.
Professor Rick Krever, Director of the Taxation Law and Policy Research Institute at Monash University, has stated, 'I don't think it will ever happen just because the cost/benefit is ridiculous.'
Professor Krever said it was a 'fantasy' to suggest that overseas retailers would be willing to collect tax.
The professor stated, 'It would be interesting if Australia did something nobody else has been able to do.' He added that while Europe was one case where there was a GST rule for giant retailers such as Amazon and Microsoft, it only worked because there was an enforcement mechanism, with Microsoft having offices and employees based in Europe.
John Freebairn, economics professor at the University of Melbourne, said he would largely back the framework that the productivity commission used. Professor Freebairn stated, 'Until these scare mongers come up with a new low cost administrative system they're basically paddling up a dry creek going nowhere.'
3. Online shopping offers many attractions in addition to lower prices
A survey conducted in March this year by the Australia Institute found that consumers saved between 50 per cent and 75 per cent on many items by purchasing from online overseas stores; however, reduced costs are not the only attraction for those who shop online.
The same survey found that while 85 per cent of respondents shop online to save money, 54 per cent want to save time, around a third to avoid travel and shopping centres and 23 per cent to avoid salespeople. It has been claimed that apart from lower prices, other major attractions of online shopping - saving time and avoiding shopping centres - have to be recognised as meeting the needs of a significant population of consumers.
The Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, has stated, 'Consumers enjoy shopping online because it offers them choice, convenience and often discounts far beyond 10%, because international retailers have embraced the digital economy and have developed sophisticated and consumer friendly business models.'
Adam Ferrier, a consumer psychologist from Naked Communications, has stated, 'The main motivation to purchase online can be ease of access, breadth of range and access to things that aren't available here.'
A review conducted by Price Waterhouse Coopers in 2012 suggested that there were a range of factors in addition to simple price which helped to explain the growing popularity of online shopping. These included greater variety and choice of goods; the rapidly increasingly usage of mobile devices; the continued strength of the Australian dollar; the use of social media by both consumers and retailers to drive brand awareness and the proliferation of group buying sites.
4. Australian retailers should also sell online
It has been argued that rather than trying to limit the impact of online purchasing, Australian retailers should sell some of their stock online.
In their recent report Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail Industry, the Productivity Commission noted that 'Australia also appears to lag a number of comparable countries in its development of online retailing'. There are many who have argued that the salvation for bricks and mortar retail enterprises is to offer their customers a mixed service that includes the opportunity to buy online.
Launa Inman, the former Target chief executive, has argued that despite a tough year for retailers, online retailers had just enjoyed a 'phenomenal' Christmas. Ms Inman has stated, ''I think that every retailer really needs to expedite their online, because that will be the saving grace.'
KPMG's head of retail for the Asia-Pacific, George Svinos, has stated that the winners in retail would be those who were able to combine both online and offline sales.
Mr Svinos has said, 'There are amazing ways of using the internet to help the bricks-and-mortar retailers and we are yet to make those sorts of investments. There are great examples overseas of websites showing which store closest to me has the product I want. I can choose to go the store and pick it up. As a retailer, I get the benefit of the customer coming into my physical store because two out of three customers will make additional purchases.'
Jenny Nethercote, from The Hattery in Katoomba and hatsdirect.com, says their small business has been online for the past 10 years. Ms Nethercote has stated, 'We get customers who come into the store but haven't made up their mind and want to think about it. We'll give them a head size and once they've decided what they want, they order online...The big retailers ... can benefit by being online and having a shop. Small businesses are picking up on online because they know people haven't time to shop, and are more and more switched on to computers.'
5. The extent and effect of online shopping is exaggerated
It has been claimed that large Australian retailers exaggerate the extent and the effect of online shopping.
The Assistant Treasurer, Bill Shorten, has stated, 'Online retail sales account for about 3% of all retail sales in Australia, and it is estimated that between 20% to half of these sales relate to overseas purchases...'
Similar data has been generated within the United Kingdom where a 2004 study has suggested 'fears that the Internet will take over the [traditional] retail arena seem, at least at this point in time, overblown and exaggerated'. While British research from 2007 suggests that, 'although consumers often consult the Internet before going shopping, it is unlikely, at least in the short term, to have a significant effect on demand levels, in city centre stores'.
Opponents of lowering the tax threshold on goods sold in Australia through the Internet stress, as does Mr Shorten, that a large majority of online shoppers in Australia are buying goods from Australia retailers. The results of a survey titled The Changing Face of Retail conducted in June 2012 include the statistic, 'International sites are being used less often than Australian sites, with 7 per cent of consumers shopping online internationally weekly, compared with 12 per cent shopping weekly at local sites.'
Bill Shorten has further argued that the lack of a GST on online goods costing less than $1000 is unlikely to be a significant contributor to the reduced sales Australian retailers are currently enduring.
Mr Shorten has stated, 'There is no denying that retailers are doing it tough, but other factors like the high Aussie dollar, the ongoing aftershocks of the GFC and the fact that Australians are simply spending less ... are having a much greater impact than the absence of a 10% GST on a small number of overseas imports.'
Arguments in favour of taxing more on-line purchases
1. Bricks and mortar retailers have larger overheads
It has been noted that bricks and mortar retailers, that is, those with a physical premises, have greater costs or overheads than their online competitors. They are likely to have greater rental charges, service charges (such as power and other utilities) and staff costs.
On August 2, 2012, The Punch published an opinion piece by Frank Zumbo, an Associate Professor within the School of Business Law and Taxation at the University of New South Wales. Professor Zumbo stated, 'Even before a bricks and mortar retailer opens their doors they are hit with rents from retail landlords and shopping centres. That means that the retail prices at bricks and mortar stores will obviously be inflated by the retail rent that they have to pay to the landlord or shopping centre.'
The professor went on to further highlight the financial advantage enjoyed by online retailers. Professor Zumbo noted, 'In contrast, the online retailer is likely to pay a tiny fraction of the rent that the bricks and mortar stores have to pay and that means the online retailer can offer much lower retail prices to consumers when they shop online.'
It has also been claimed that consumers are increasingly using bricks and mortar retailers to 'showroom' a product before purchasing it at a lower price online. This means the consumer trials the product in the higher cost physical premise before actually buying it elsewhere. Such practices only increase the financial disadvantage at which physical retailers find themselves.
2. Untaxed online goods are unfair competition
Many Australian retailers have claimed that allowing online sellers to avoid imposing a tax on goods they sell below the value of $1000 give them a further unfair advantage over the bricks-and-mortar retailer.
Speaking of current conditions for Australian retailers, Margy Osmond, the head of the Australian National Retailers Association, has stated, 'The sector cannot afford to lose more crucial Christmas trading periods before we see a level playing field for Australian retail, while overseas retailers have the upper hand.'
In a media statement made on May 1, 2012, the National Retailers Association stated, 'The onus is ... on the Federal Government to address the unfair import arrangements applying to on-line sales, and allow Australian businesses to compete on an even playing field with their foreign rivals.'
A similar observation has been made by Mark McInnes, Premier Retail chief executive and former David Jones CEO who has claimed that the unfair tax and government policy were the biggest factors behind Australia's retail slump.
Mr McInnes stated that the recent collapse of the women's fashion chain Ojay was another example of the impact of the tax regime. Mr McInnes said, 'They (online importers) have a 15 per cent unfair advantage.'
Bernie Brookes, Myers chief executive has further stated, 'We've always been of the view that there's not a level playing field if offshore retailers can escape the goods and services tax and import duties.'
Gary Black, the executive director of Australia's National Retail Association has claimed, 'Australia's $1000 low value threshold on foreign online purchases is highly inequitable when you consider that in countries such as the UK the threshold is as low as œ15 ($A23.25).'
3. Australian retail is in decline
In the online magazine Inside Retail and article was published on July 18, 2012, which stated, 'During 2012, Australian retail has suffered an unprecedented decline.'
The article then specified that, 'Smart Company has calculated that publicly announced store closures alone numbered 650 during the last six months with over 1600 jobs being lost; 300 more stores have been earmarked for closure during the next two years.'
It has been argued that Australian retailers are over-servicing given the level of demand within the country, that is, there are more retail outlets than there is consumer demand to warrant.
BIS Shrapnel, in its recent 2012 retail property sector report, warned retail was in for a very difficult decade despite forecasting overall growth. It calculated that new retail floorspace construction is still growing at a rate above population growth as well as retail spending growth.
Retail sales figures released in August showed the worst retail growth in fifty years. In an article published in The Australian on August 4, 2012, it was stated, '
The 1.6 per cent annual rise in spending is the worst result since 1961-62 - an era when there were no credit cards and shoppers used pounds, shillings and pence.'
On September 3, 2012, World Business Press Online published an article which included an overview of the current decline in Australian retail spending. It stated, 'Spending at department stores decreased 10.2% in July, which is the worst month performance in seven years or since April 2005. Weak results also increase concerns about job security. Consumers also spent 2.8% less on other retailing, a category that includes pharmacies, newspaper shops and book stores.
4. Online sales are causing a loss of jobs in Australian retailing
Gary Black, the executive director of Australia's National Retail Association has claimed recently, 'If we don't act, on our modelling, the Australian retail sector will lose 33,000 jobs. Thirty-three thousand Australian jobs will be shipped offshore between now and 2015.'
In April 2011 the National Retail Association had claimed that the surge towards internet shopping would strip Australia of about 50,000 jobs over the next five years.
Both estimates suggest that the growth of online shopping will have a major negative impact on employment within Australian retail.
Employment in the retail sector was falling all through 2011 through a series of collapses among large retail outlets.
Andrew McClennan, the Commonwealth Bank's retail analyst, has stated, 'But also there is no doubt there are going to be significant layoffs through further business failures.'
Julie Toth , an ANZ economist, has noted that job losses in the retail sector are likely to feed through into the wholesale and the transportation industries. Ms Toth stated, 'Because retail has been terrible for so long, it really is a major risk in the labour market.'
A report by Ernst & Young has concluded that 118,000 traditional retail jobs will be lost in Australia by 2015 because of the switch to online retailing - representing the demise of one in 11 traditional retail jobs. It said most of those job losses would be in typical non-food sectors, such as department stores, electronic shops and clothes stores.
5. Australian governments are losing a great deal of tax revenue
It has been claimed that by not applying a GST to goods purchased online from overseas at a value of less than $1000 the various state and territory governments were losing a great deal of revenue.
Gary Black , the executive director of Australia's National Retail Association has claimed, 'A study conducted for the NRA by accountants Ernst & Young found the failure to amend the low value threshold would deny Australia's states and territories up to $2.45 billion in potential GST distributions between 2012-13 and 2014-15.'
Mr Black has further stated, 'The loophole, which is denying the states and territories access to much needed additional GST revenues, is a double blow to their respective economies because the low value threshold also poses the greatest threat to traditional retail jobs and domestic online retail growth.'
Russell Zimmerman, executive director, Australian Retailers Association (ARA), has stated, 'The ARA welcomes the ... recommendation to address parcel processing inefficiencies with better border protection and collection processes, which will help close the current revenue trapdoor causing state governments to miss out on millions of dollars in valuable income.'
Mr Zimmerman has further urged the states and territories to avail themselves of 'desperately needed revenue stream for state and territory governments.
Margy Osmond, the chief executive of the Australian National Retailers Association has similarly noted that it was important to remember GST did not go to retailers.
Ms Osmond has stated, ''The GST that's collected in this state will be going back into communities across the country.' The association has proposed a threshold of $100.
Mike Baird, the New South Wales Treasurer, has called on the Commonwealth to consider reducing the GST threshold on online goods from $1000 to $30, following the release of the final report of the Low Value Parcel Processing Taskforce. The Taskforce report has suggested that these taxes could be collected economically.
The Victorian Treasurer, Kim Wells, has backed plans to impose GST on online foreign purchases after a new report found such a move could boost Victoria's bottom line by more than $500 million over three years.
The report, by Ernst & Young, estimates scrapping the so-called low-value threshold - where goods bought online worth less than $1000 escape the GST - would raise $564 million over the next three years for Victoria.
Further implications
Despite the recommendations of the Low Value Parcel Processing Taskforce it seems unlikely that the GST will be imposed on low value online imported goods in the immediate future. Mechanisms for cost-effectively imposing the tax have still to be refined. There will also be a significant political cost for any government imposing a tax that will increase costs for the rapidly growing number of computer savvy consumers. It has been suggested that in as volatile an electoral environment as that which exists in the lead-up to the next federal election, neither the Gillard government nor the Abbott opposition is likely to want to be seen to have opened up an additional area to which the GST can be applied.
Ultimately collection mechanisms will be refined and federal governments will make political trade-offs to make an extension of the GST into currently untaxed areas more palatable to consumers. This will have to be done as the online importation of goods is likely to increase and governments are not going to be willing to forego a growing source of tax revenue.
Those state governments that have come out and spoken in favour of putting the GST on imported goods of a value less than $1000 have stressed the benefits that they would offer voters via the extra revenue they would receive.
The New South Wales Treasurer, Mike Baird, has claimed that his government would remove the stamp duty on buying a home. He has said that the GST-free threshold on goods bought online from overseas retailers could be lowered from its current $1,000 dollar limit to $30. This would net the Federal Government millions, and Mr Baird would like to see that revenue used to help the states abolish stamp duty on housing.
Long-term it would also seem that Australian bricks and mortar retailers are going to have to join that sector they currently see as the opposition. The future of Australian retailing requires that all sectors make greater use of the consumer's readiness to shop online. Physical retailers are also going to have to improve the quality of the in-store service they offer consumers in order to justify their continued existence. Finally, a serious investigation needs to be conducted into why overseas suppliers of some key imported goods make them available to Australian retailers at highly inflated prices.
Newspaper items used in the compilation of this issue outline
AUST, January 9, 2012, page 12, comment by Dick Smith, `Dark side of online deals'.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/dark-side-of-online-deals/story-e6frgd0x-1226239331087
AGE, January 4, 2012, page 2, news item by B Butler, `Retailers told: go online, or wither on vine'.
AUST, February 29, 2012, page 3, news item by Damien Woolnough and Andrew Colley, `Net offers to lure shoppers into stores'.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/website-offers-used-to-lure-shoppers-back-to-shopping-centres/story-e6frg6nf-1226284470811
AGE, February 28, 2012, page 8, news item (photo) by Rachel Wells, `Online sales outpacing traditional retail'.
http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/online-sales-outpacing-traditional-retail-20120227-1tyya.html
AGE, March 3, 2012, page 6, news item (ref to Harvey Norman) by Kim Christian, `Harvey's online plan falters'.
http://www.theage.com.au/business/harveys-online-plan-falters-20120302-1u8yj.html
AGE, March 23, 2012, page 10, editorial, `Retailers must grasp their virtual future'.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/retailers-must-grasp-their-virtual-future-20120322-1vmv0.html
AGE, April 6, 2012, page 22, comment (ref in part to workplace conditions in Amazon.com warehouses) by Suzy Freeman-Greene, `The dark face of a cheap and easy online shopping habit'.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/society-and-culture/the-dark-face-of-a-cheap-and-easy-online-shopping-habit-20120405-1wfj1.html
H/SUN, May 16, 2012, page 17, comment by Beverley O'Connor, `Global village demands shopping freedom'.
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/global-village-demands-freedom/story-e6frfhqf-1226356690531
AGE, May 17, 2012, page 5, news item by Rachel Wells, `Watchdog urged to probe local distributors blocking online sales'.
http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/shopping/watchdog-to-probe-web-deals-20120517-1yslw.html
AGE, May 11, 2012, page 1, news item (photo) by Rachel Wells, `Importers close door on overseas online stores'.
http://www.theage.com.au/lifestyle/shopping/importers-close-door-on-overseas-online-stores-20120511-1yg3r.html
AGE, May 14, 2012, page 10, editorial, `Consumers will always find a way'. (second editorial down page)
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/rising-ever-higher-melbourne-eclipses-itself-20120513-1yktc.html
AGE, May 18, 2012, page 1, news item by Rachel Wells, `Probe into retailing on the net' (ref to consumers / ACCC / Australian Competition and Consumers commission).
http://www.theage.com.au/national/probe-into-retailing-on-the-net-20120517-1ytns.html
AUST, June 1, 2012, page 3, news item by Natasha Bita, `Online invoice scam has Customs beaten'.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/australian-it/online-invoice-scam-has-customs-beaten/story-e6frgakx-1226377878687
AGE, June 11, 1012, page 5, news item (ref to blocking of overseas internet websites selling wheelchairs etc for the disabled) by Rachel Wells, `Advocates call for inquiry into "profiteering" on disability equipment'.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/advocates-call-for-inquiry-into-profiteering-on-disability-equipment-20120610-204fv.html
AUST, August 25, 2012, Australian Magazine insert, page 16, analysis by Kate Legge, `Clicks & mortar'.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/clicks-and-mortar/story-e6frg8h6-1226454069567
AGE, September 9, 2012, page 4, news item by Deborah Gough, `Online tax no silver bullet, say retailers'.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/online-tax-no-silver-bullet-say-retailers-20120908-25lex.html
AUST, September 7, 2012, page 3, news item by Blair Speedy, `Retailers cheer internet sales tax call'.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/retailers-cheer-call-for-higher-tax-on-internet-sales-tax/story-e6frg916-1226466814408
H/SUN, September 15, 2012, page 27, news item by Peter Rolfe, `Call to end GST free ride'.
http://m.news.com.au/VIC/pg/0/fi1758546.htm
AGE, September 15, 2012, page 3, news item by Josh Gordon, `State backs push to impose GST on online purchases'.
http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/political-news/state-backs-push-to-impose-gst-on-online-purchases-20120914-25xxw.html