I was thinking about the prices of astronomical equipment that we have to pay in Australia, especially for scopes and imagers, just recently and it occurred to me just how much the government is actually ripping us all off. I can understand why they would put import duties on things such as cars, clothing etc etc, aw we produce these items in Australia, but can anyone name me
any manufacturers of scopes (commercial ones, not scopes such as SDM's etc), imagers or other similar equipment here in Oz?? Silence?? I thought so. Even for ordinary cameras and such, no one in Australia makes them...none of the big companies have any facilities in Oz. Everything is imported. Now, import duty is basically a tax, one that was originally levied to help protect local industries from "unfair" overseas competition. It was used to level out the price difference between cheaper overseas goods and more expensive homemade gear. If we have no industries here making the stuff, then why should they bother slapping an import duty on them. Except to just grab money...yep, another honey pot for the pollies to dip their greedy little hands into. Yes, it may grab them a bag full of money, but can you imagine how much more money they'd get out of GST gained off more of those goods being sold in this country if they never ramped the prices up by slapping import duty on them. How much easier would it be to enter the hobby and how much more willing would people be to fork out money for equipment when they knew it would be relatively cheap and only had it's price dictated by the value of the currency and not rafts of imposed taxes as well.
Have a think about it
