Previous OurSay
Next OurSay
Click here to see other OurSays. You have 7 votes per OurSay!
Stephen Mayne, John Thwaites, Fran Bailey, OurCommunity.com.au, CC
in
“Communities in Control ”
Open
Ged Kearney, ACTU, Secure Jobs. Better Future., Josh Peak
in
“Secure jobs for a better future”
Closed
Cr Cathy Oke, City of Melbourne
in
“Rio Plus 20 Agenda”
Responses up
Crikey, House of Representatives, Adam Bandt MP, Your question
in
“The People's Question”
Responses up
Campbell Newman
in
“The Queensland Agenda”
Responses up
Andrew Demetriou, Amanda Vanstone, Charlie Pickering
in
“The Australian Republic”
Responses up
Anna Bligh
in
“The Queensland Agenda - Part 1”
Responses up
Prof. Noam Chomsky, Deakin University
in
“Contours Of Global Order”
Responses up
666 ABC Canberra, UC, Canberra Refugee Support, Julie Posetti
in
“Reporting Refugees”
Responses up
John Merritt, EPA
in
“EPA Victoria”
Responses up
Robert Manne, The Quarterly Essay
in
“Bad News”
Responses up
Andrew Demetriou, Kevin Sheedy, Matthew Richardson
in
“AFL Finals Panel ”
Responses up
The Climate Agenda, Michael Bachelard, Misha Schubert, Deborah Gough
in
“The Sunday Age”
Responses up
You?, Greg Hywood, Mark Scott, Sophie Black
in
“Australian Media Leaders”
Responses up
Kelly O’Dwyer, Deb O’Neill , Larissa Waters
in
“Women in Politics”
Responses up
David Thodey
in
“Telstra CEO David Thodey”
Responses up
The Hon. Martin Dixon MP, Vic SRC
in
“Victorian Education Minister”
Responses up
Margaret Simons, Anna Krien, Tim Soutphommasane
in
“Quarterly Essay”
Responses up
Malcolm Fraser
in
“Renewing Democracy”
Responses up
Q&A
in
“Q&A - After The Budget - May 16th”
Responses up
The People's Question
In February, Crikey.com.au and OurSay gave you the opportunity to get your question asked in House of Representatives through a secret MP.
Crikey.com.au featured a new reader's question each week, and looked at where/how and why of the issue.
After voting closed, it was revealed the secret MP was Adam Bandt, the member for Melbourne. He plans to take the top question on the OurSay site (which is about end-of-life decision-making) into parliament house on Wednesday the 14th of March. Stay tuned to our website, Facebook page and Twitter for updates.
The Question
I direct this question to the Minister and Shadow Minister of Trade. Australia was one of the first countries to embrace RIcardian economic theories, lowering trade barriers at the same time other countries were developing competencies in sectors such as electronics and industrial manufacturing on the back of Goverment supported, export led strategies, which resulted in Australia's first mover advantage and capabilities in these sectors not being capitalised on. Fast forward to 2012 and Australians are now being charged inflated prices by foreign companies for goods which sell up to 50% cheaper in foreign markets. Prime examples are Apple iTunes products being sold twice the price in Australia than the USA and an Ikea desk three times the price in Australia than Sweden, you can find many more of these examples. When will the Australian Ministry of Trade protect Australians from these 'reverse dumping' policies of foreign companies, who are pricing their goods higher to the Australian market than to their local markets. Without creating huge disincentives for foreign companies to charge Australians above what they charge in their local markets, then the initial Ricardian logic of foregoing these industries in the first place based is severely compromised.
Great question. To give some idea of the absurdity of it, there are some instances where an Australian made product can be purchased from the US and shipping back to an Australian customer for less than what that customer can buy it locally. And that's a relatively heavy item to ship and with customs adding GST on it (>$1000 threshold).