By Claire Reilly

Despite its history of rallying against online websites that sell directly to Australian consumers (and avoid charging GST), Harvey Norman launched its own direct import website for console games at the close of last year.

Ben McIntosh, the head of Harvey Norman’s computer division, has defended the site, saying it was a necessary step to bringing consumers the best prices.

“Consumers have been pretty much demanding it,” said McIntosh. “There have been all sorts of headlines in the paper about global pricing and being able to buy it cheaper off-shore. We thought, ‘Okay, well we’ve publicly voiced our opinions about overseas websites and we got nowhere,’ so it was a case of ‘if you can’t beat them, join them’.

“If the government will not fix the loophole that is wrong for the country, then you cannot blame us for then using the same loophole as [overseas companies],” he added. “The argument is that if it’s good enough for a Hong Kong company not to pay tax and it’s too hard to collect GST on sales less than $1000 GST, then why do Australian retailers have to collect less the GST?

“At the end of the day we have shareholders to provide for and customers…and staff to provide for. We have to get a slice of that market. If we let it all go to overseas entities, then there’ll be no business left at all.”

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McIntosh also said he hoped the move in the industry towards direct importing would shift the way suppliers thought about pricing. “Our argument is that Australian suppliers can no longer get away with non-global pricing, because we’ve shown how easy it is to do direct importing,” he said.

“For the health of the Australian industry I hope the suppliers in all categories wake up to global pricing, so Australian retailers can buy from them and then provide a reasonable price for customers in Australia."

Until then, Harvey Norman’s direct importing site will stay, according to McIntosh.

“If the government’s encouraging businesses to do it, we’ll make sure that the customer can buy as cheap as possible for a good quality product. We don’t want anyone having to go overseas to buy product cheaper.

“We’ll make sure that when customers associate with Harvey Norman, they can see that we’re fighting for the best global deals for them in every category.

“It’s overwhelming the amount of people we’re getting onto the site, so it’s a very positive move and it’s only the early stages.”