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I don't think that most of us have a problem paying GST on overseas purchases. The problem is the way the government decided to do it. The result is an artificial geofencing of Australia and less competition in an already uncompetitive Australian market.
And to people defending Harvey Norman and the likes, yes they provide jobs and pay taxes in Australia. However, they all play a really dirty game. Using the example few posts up, how can anyone justify Dymocks selling a book for $420 + $40 shipping (with 6 weeks waiting time) while it is USD$88 on Amazon, ready to be shipped the same day?
Price gauging and extreme profit margins are a regular occurrence in the Australian market. The rise of the internet and globalisation gave us a way to break out of this and to make our market competitive again. However, the recent GST changes play straight into Harvey Norman's (and the likes') hands by putting a (partial) fence around Australia again.
And let's not even go into the lack of availability of the products/content from the local retailers.
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