The Fair Imports Alliance has praised the Government's commitment to a national digital economy strategy but said, in reality, retail is still being ignored by some areas of government that don't grasp the need to engage the changing retail marketplace in the digital economy.

Fair Imports Alliance spokesperson Brad Kitschke criticised the Minister Sherry's response and said there didn't appear to be a genuine understanding of retail industry needs, or of the failure of the SBO program to address these needs.

"We've been told to refer retailers to existing SBO funding recipients for assistance. However, the Fair Imports Alliance attempted to contact every provider who was granted money and their capacity to meet the needs of retail is limited.

"Of those SBO funding recipients able to be contacted, many advised their funding had run out, or their funding was only for specific geographic areas, or they had a limited skill base and capacity to deliver training to the retail sector.

"Only a handful of SBO funding recipients advised they would be willing and able to assist retailers. Of those who responded positively, few have demonstrated a contemporary grasp of retail market trends and an appropriate understanding of new media, including social media and m-commerce.

"Many of the contact details and web addresses on the Government's own website are out of date. This is just not good enough.

"Retailers are facing tremendous change with an increase in online sales and a rapidly shifting marketplace and there hasn't been any funding programs developed specifically to help Australian retailers adapt. Retail needs help immediately and while it's positive the Government is creating a roadmap for the future, we are concerned it might be too late," Kitschke said.

RETAILERS WELCOME PROPER REVIEW OF GST THRESHOLD 

The Fair Imports Alliance today welcomed the release of the Productivity Commission (PC) Economic Structure and Performance of the Australian Retail Industry Issues Paper.

The Fair Imports Alliance spokesperson Brad Kitschke said the issue of the low value importation threshold and the effect of an anti-competitive marketplace were being examined properly for the first time after the Board of Taxation's review in July 2010 made decisions without evidence.

‘We supported the establishment of the PC inquiry about the future of retail in Australia because we believed  previous reviews of the threshold were too narrow, didn't examine all the complexities of the issues and made decisions without data. We are looking forward to an evidence based examination of the threshold for the first time.

"Government can't tell us the number or value of packages imported under the GST threshold. Nor can it tell us the cost of enforcing a lower threshold, even though it says a lower threshold is administratively unfeasible and not economically viable to enforce.

"Retailers don't understand how these decisions can be made in the absence of proper economic modelling and we look forward to the PC accessing some of this information from government where industry has been denied it.

"If this review is to provide an honest appraisal of the situation, government bureaucracy needs to be honest about the data and not rely on assumption and conjecture to reinforce the status quo," Kitschke said.

Fair Imports Alliance also said it was looking forward to a more positive debate about the role of online trade and the growth of e-tail and hoped government would remove some of the barriers to real competition.

"E-tail isn't the enemy and we want to get that message across. We want more Australian retailers to be engaging in the online space and we are encouraging them to do so.

"But if you look at it simply, if you compared a Hong Kong based online retailer of clothing to an Australian online retailer of clothing, the Hong Kong business has a 20 percent advantage (10 percent GST and 10 percent custom duties) because of the threshold. How can an Australian e-tailer compete when overseas counterparts have this kind of head start due to a form of reverse protectionism that punishes Australian businesses operating in a global market?" Kitschke said.

The Fair Imports Alliance comprises the following organisations: Australian Retailers Association (ARA), Australian Sporting Goods Association (ASGA), Bicycle Industries Australia (BIA), Australian Toy Association (ATA), Photo Marketing Association (PMA), Australian Fishing Trade Association (AFTA), Australian Booksellers Association (ABA), Australian Music Association (AMA) and the Retail Cycle Traders Australian (RCTA).  For more information visit: www.fairimportsalliance.org.au or email fairimportsalliance@retail.org.auor call 1300 368 041.

-ends-