Australia Tax
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Australia Tax is a phrase applied to the generally higher prices in Australia of
goods and services Goods are items that are usually (but not always) tangible, such as pens, physical books, salt, apples, and hats. Services are activities provided by other people, who include architects, suppliers, contractors, technologists, teachers, doc ...
than equivalent costs in comparative overseas nations such as the
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...
. This is particularly the case for
video games Video games, also known as computer games, are electronic games that involves interaction with a user interface or input device such as a joystick, game controller, controller, computer keyboard, keyboard, or motion sensing device to gener ...
, computer hardware, and software but may extend to non-technological items such as cars, designer clothing and banking services. Companies selling non-physical products which are not subject to the rent and labour of a traditional retail outlet have been particularly criticised. Some prices differences can be as much as 88%. The phrase was first used by
Ed Husic Edham Nurredin Husic (born 3 February 1970), commonly known as Ed Husic, is an Australian politician serving as Minister for Industry and Science (Australia), Minister for Industry and Science since 2022. Husic is a member of the Australian Hou ...
, a federal member of parliament, who brought the issue up in the chamber and subsequently advocated for an inquiry into the problem. The cost of digital goods was the subject of an inquiry by the
Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
n government in 2013.


Examples

The cost of
Adobe Systems Adobe Inc. ( ), originally called Adobe Systems Incorporated, is an American multinational computer software company incorporated in Delaware and headquartered in San Jose, California. It has historically specialized in software for the crea ...
'
Creative Suite Adobe Creative Suite (CS) is a discontinued software suite of graphic design, video editing, and web development application software, applications developed by Adobe Systems. The last of the Creative Suite versions, Adobe Creative Suite 6 (CS6) ...
6 Master Collection in Australia was much higher than that of the United States equivalent, retailing at AU$4,334 in comparison to $2,599 in the United States. It was calculated at the time that it was cheaper to fly to the United States, purchase a copy of the software, and fly back to Australia. In May 2013, the
Adobe Creative Cloud Adobe Creative Cloud is a set of applications and services from Adobe Inc. that gives subscribers access to a collection of software used for graphic design, video editing, web development, photography, along with a set of mobile applications a ...
service was launched, offering access to the Creative Suite software on a subscription basis. Australian prices initially were set to AU$62.99 per month in comparison to the United States price of $49.99 per month, but following an inquiry by the Australian government into regional pricing of digitally distributed goods, Adobe Systems adjusted the Australian price to match that of the United States.
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
was criticised by a report released by the Australian Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communications titled "At what cost? IT pricing and the Australia tax." The report acknowledged that there were some contributing factors specific to the Australian market which can make it a higher-cost environment for IT vendors compared with other markets, such as Australia's small population and geographical distribution, however the inquiry did not find that these factors were substantial enough to defend the price increases of products such as
Microsoft Office Microsoft Office, or simply Office, is the former name of a family of client software, server software, and services developed by Microsoft. It was first announced by Bill Gates on August 1, 1988, at COMDEX in Las Vegas. Initially a marketin ...
, especially if the product is delivered via the Internet.''At what cost? IT pricing and the Australia tax, Chapter 3, Paragraph 117 ''


IT pricing inquiry

In 2012, the
House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...
Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communication began a 12-month investigation into price differences for IT products. The report, mentioned in the preceding section, concluded that IT products are more expensive in Australia because of "regional pricing strategies implemented by major vendors and copyright holders". Ten recommendations were made including the removal of geo-blocking restrictions and lifting restrictions on
parallel importing A parallel import is a non-counterfeit product imported from another country without the permission of the intellectual property owner. Parallel imports are often referred to as grey product and are implicated in issues of international trade, a ...
. An amendment to the Competition and Consumer Act, which would make contracts or terms of service which seek to enforce geo-blocking become void, was suggested, as was the education of the Australian public on ways to circumvent geo-blocking mechanisms. The recommendations were supported by the Australian consumer rights organisation,
Choice A choice is the range of different things from which a being can choose. The arrival at a choice may incorporate motivators and models. For example, a traveler might choose a route for a journey based on the preference of arriving at a giv ...
.


See also

*
Rip-off Britain Rip-off Britain is an expression used by some to refer to the phenomenon in which some products and services cost significantly more in the United Kingdom than in other countries, especially member states of the European Union and the United St ...


References

{{Reflist, 2 Foreign trade of Australia