arjay,if i could feed my family cars and plasma tv's it may actually cost me less.I'm well aware that costs have risen but i'm also aware that GST goes ontop of any price increases.Write down all your bills and work out how much gst is costing you.The amount is enormous.In this house the wages have not gone up enough to cover the increase in costs.
A lot of people have no complaints about GST but i am from a lower income bracket(not social security)and we are feeling the pinch.As i've already said,luxury items,like plasma tv's,cars,champagne and caviar have gone down but the basic staples of life have increased.I know we have price rises all the time but now we have GST on top again.Just my power bill alone is costing me twice what it did 10 years ago and the GST on that alone amounts to 100 dollars a year and i actually use less power now.The question was "how has GST affected your life".I am not an economics scholar just a struggling housewife who is pissed off because my life style has deteriorated under the present system.Sure some things are cheaper BUT they are not the things that poorer people buy.

Arjay, I dare say that haygirl is right on this. I am well aware of the sales taxes that were removed, but most of these were not from everyday consumables. Clothes are the other common item that were subject to sales tax, but if you make your own clothes or shop at op shops (or Ebay), then you wont notice savings there either. As for electrical items etc - well there are even some of us younger generation that will only buy s/h - hey you never know when they will turn into antiques! :)

You are correct in saying that there is no GST on most food items (fresh food anyway), but bear in mind that a significant proportion of a weekly shopping bill goes on other grocery items. EG washing powder, shampoos, soaps, toilet paper, personal hygiene, razors etc etc etc. And the prices of these items have been going up and up - very few could be considered to be drought-effected either.

A couple of the most offensive GST situations that I know of:
1. GST on fuel excise (a tax on a tax)
2. Stamp duty on a new house (new homes are subject to GST and the stamp duty is paid on the GST inclusive value)

Stamp duty was inherited from the UK, but I am talking about more than 100 years ago, so I expect that the two systems have diverged significantly since then.