While it's easy to blame the high dollar and no GST on imports, I think it goes a bit deeper than that.

When I can buy something off Ebay in the states for cheaper than what a retailer can get it for over here suggests that someone in the pipeline is being greedy and/or there are too many people with their fingers in the pie.

An industry which relies soley on discretionairy spending is going to do it tough in today's economic climate.

Sad and bad news all the same.

 The Itunes thing is a tax markup mostly, There is big taxes on things like that to protect the "local bussinesses"

Just so happens there is no good local alternatives and we just get screwed

 Mate retail is doing it tough but I can tell you that australian manufacturing is at a crisis point.

We cannot compete against Chinese labour rates and the current tariffs are not protecting local

businesses at all. We are also finding fab shops on the east coast are struggling and trying to get

work in wa at break even rates.

Aussies need to start supporting Aussies and not just buy something because it cheaper, from my experience

cheap is usually cheap for a reason.

i work for a company that used to buy local ( mining related) we got bought out by an overseas company and now they globaly source everything from china.some of it is ok but most is shit and breaks prematurely  but they keep buying it because it`s cheap.doesn`t make sense.millions of dollars going overseas

 Electricity and gas only have a minor impact, we pay a min wage of 28.5 hr to our lowest paid employee,  this is well above the award but we pay this to ensure that we can keep our staff and produce quality work. Add to this approx $13 an hour per employee for the cost of renting a 1000sqm workshop +super and workers comp and your Paying approx $50 per hour to run a fab shop, hard to compete against $2 hour with no super or benefits. Even with freight and taxes there miles ahead. Abott needs to get some balls and start protecting australian industry.

 we are used to a way of life which is out of sinc with majority of other countries ,dont think its fair to lower our standards -way of life ,but feel the writing is on the wall ,adjust or go under.

I think saulty2 has nailed it, having spent a bit of time visiting various parts of Europe over the last 5 years for work i can tell you first hand that things here are really good - Ireland, Spain, Portugal are like ghettos, you go down main roads in CBD areas and there are shops/buildings with the windows boarded up,50% youth un-employment (under 25's) and average unemployment of 25+% its not just restricted to the smaller euro states - things in London have been crap and only now are starting to pick up - i have an ex work colleague that has been out of work for 2 years and only recently found a job at what i suspect is probably half what he was earning previously.
Australia went through the GFC without a hick up and the rest of the world has been hurting, - as much as we dont want it, its our turn to take some pain, or put more delicately "re-adjust"
- the only good news out of this - boats will get cheaper!

 ive paid a premium for mine and wont get another anytime soon.

office rentals has gone down by 30% vacancy at an all time high  12-18months before re leasing if your lucky  , council has dropped rates this year by near on 4,000.00 ,council wouldnt drop unless there was clear evidence and pressure to do so.its sign of the times unfortunately 

yes i think some people are doing it tough, personally i think in a couple of years time we will look back at today and realize how well off we were .

flip side brickies are doing well charging the builder near on  2.00 each net. no sand or cement ,just to lay maxi bricks  & in turn the builder passes onto the home owner .home truth is ,guess it all depends on where your at within the food chain.df. not here to bag anyone just commenting on current conditions thats all   

anyone got the link to any news stories on this please ?

Boats will only get cheaper due to financial stress (meaning 2nd hand boats)last thing you buy when things are good, first thing you sell when things get tough - woudlnt wish it on anyone but inevitably thats what happens
And just to clarify -i am not a dooms dayer! but i cant see one good reason why things will pick up here anytime soon -I would be very happy to be wrong on that one!!

It makes me quite sad when I look at the auction sites and see the amount of businesses that are up for auction with all the tooling etc. When you think that it was some ones hard yakka and guts that ran the business and now it's gone belly up and Australia has lost that business and employer it sinks home that we all should support Australian manufactures' when possible.
I'm afraid that I don't believe in this free trade stuff nor the level playing field tripe either, if you think other countries are not looking out for their citizens first and Australia second then in my opinion you are naïve.
And while I'm having a bit of a rant and rave, just you try to buy a chunk of land in most other countries and see how you get on. This country which I love needs to do some very serious thinking about the long term future and less about the quick buck and the stuff you jack I'm alright attitude.

Rant & rave over