Kogan Blog
Gerry Harvey Starting to Back Down After Kogan Calls His Bluff
Posted on .A couple of weeks ago Gerry Harvey (Harvey Norman) and Bernie Brookes (Myer) were in the news trying to pressure the Australian Government to change GST laws. They said it was unfair that Australian shoppers could buy products from overseas without paying 10% GST. They also threatened to open their own online stores, based in China.
It now turns out this has been part of a coordinated campaign by the big end of town to increase the GST paid by Australian shoppers who search for the best deals around the world.
Fairfax has reported Gerry Harvey admitting this has been a calculated political campaign:
"Retailers have already been lobbying the government on this issue for over nine months. By the time the government finally completes its nine-month review, that's 18 months' government inaction.''
Mr Harvey said Harvey Norman was considering setting up websites overseas. "The problem is, we'll spend the money putting it all together and by the time we've done it, the government will close us down.''
It is becoming clear that the threat by the big end of town to open up shop offshore was part of coordinated campaign to force the hand of government, and generic political unrest through implied threats of job losses. Thankfully, our Government is resisting this underhanded political pressure.
I called Gerry Harvey out on his bluff right on this blog and in the media. Now I’m calling on Gerry Harvey to admit that Harvey Norman never intended to open up offshore, and he was merely pulling political strings.
I was on Sunrise talking about this a week ago and it's clear now that the Australian Government has also realised this was nothing more than a scare campaign.
Some of these big retailers need to spend less time lobbying the Government to limit the choice of shoppers, and more time worrying about how they can improve their businesses to offer better value to Australians.