The Forum > Article Comments > The remaining agenda for free traders > Comments
The remaining agenda for free traders : Comments
By David Richardson, published 16/7/2013Comparing our prices with overseas prices it looks like nothing has changed since Allan Fels headed the Prices Surveillance Authority in the 1980s and 1990s.
- Pages:
-
- Page 1
-
- All
- Pages:
-
- Page 1
-
- All
One factor not mentioned is the policy of overseas suppliers/importers to smooth out currency movements. I think you will find that as the Aussie dollar drops the cost of imports will not fully rise commensurately. This is quite noticeable in the case of imported cars, which also did not drop in price as much as they might have when our dollar was sky high.
The answer to the uncompetitive prices charged in this country for books, CDs and DVDs (and indeed many other items) is to buy over the internet from overseas. I (like many others) have virtually stopped buying these items in Australia for the price reasons noted by the author. In my experience you need to keep a close watch both on price and shipping costs, when buying over the net. Regional coding on DVDs is easily circumvented by buying a region free player or by changing the region code on non-region free players.