GST on all mail order items

[LachlanB]

As an Ancient History student, I have to bite at that one. Julius Caesar divorced his wife, Pompeia for purely political reasons, and used the presence of Clodius Plucher at a female only festival as an excuse. There was really no evidence for the whole beat up surrounding Clodius' presence at the Bona Dea and accusations of adultery thrown at Pompeia. Slander was a common element of politics of Republican Rome, hence the longevity of the story. Plus, the main source that fun anecdote is derived from is Plutarch, who is a moralist, not a historian.

[RonK]

Sorry,Dick Smith is a two faced hypocrite as far as I am concerned,he made his money importing cheap asian trash,now he is spouting Buy Australian.

Err, no - he made his money importing electronic components and selling them to hobbyists.
Electronic components - stuff that cannot be dug up out of the ground.

[RonK]

At this point in time, the govt is certainly not interested in artificially supporting sections of the industry

Unless of course it's the mining industry and in particular big coal.
Now that's the kind of industry the govt likes. Coal, iron ore, uranium.
Dig it up - ship it out.

[GPSGuided]

Unless of course it's the mining industry and in particular big coal.

A consequence of our political system, unfortunately. Too many votes and too much political donations attached to that sector of the economy.

[vicrev]

Got the debate going tho hasn't it....woke you all up from your winter hibernation.....

[vicrev]

I always thought Plutarch was a Greek historian....wrong again....

[LachlanB]

Your not wrong, Plutarch was indeed a Greek (he did become a Roman citizen, but by the time Plutarch lived this was increasingly meaningless), and he did write about Greek historical figures. His main work is Parallel Lives, in which he contrasts a number of prominent Greek figures with what he considers are their closest Roman counterparts. Plutarch compares Julius Caesar with Alexander the Great, but sadly we just have Plutarch's account the Lives of the two remaining, Plutarch's actual comparison is lost.
Plutarch is very important and useful, the the problem is that his fondness to errata and anecdotes is second only to that of Suetonius, who is an appalling gossip.

[icefest]

Got the debate going tho hasn't it....woke you all up from your winter hibernation.....

If getting "the debate going" was your goal, and getting responses was what you are aiming for, then why bother.

You've pretty much described an attempt at creating a flame war.

[GPSGuided]

Differentiate 'flame war' and 'debate'.

[vicrev]

Got the debate going tho hasn't it....woke you all up from your winter hibernation.....

If getting "the debate going" was your goal, and getting responses was what you are aiming for, then why bother.

You've pretty much described an attempt at creating a flame war.

Flame war ???? It's just a forum, not a WW111 bunker !!.......

[photohiker]

flame war = personal attacks from each side.

debate = challenging the position held by the person, not a personal attack. Play the ball, not the man (or woman)

[GPSGuided]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flaming_(Internet)

[kjbeath]

Yeah I am not sure of the practicality of it Wayno but apparently the onus will be on the various companies to collect the tax.

http://www.businessinsider.com.au/joe-h ... 017-2015-8

ha, they wont want to play tax man for the aussies... they'll just ban shipping to aus or put a minimum price on orders to make it worth their while.

here its customs who contact the buyer for the tax

In a lot of European countries it is the freight or postal company that collects the tax. To make it easy Amazon will estimate the tax for most countries, it is then paid at checkout, and it all gets sorted out by the computers, paid to the freight company and hence to the government.

Some companies have be doing this for more than 10 years.

We can easily pass the same laws.

[GPSGuided]

Then come the FTAs... TPP or whatever other flavours. Up goes all that import taxes. LOL