Possibility of eBay being no longer available to Australia

[DELTAprime]

How on Earth do they expect to enforce this? If you block sites at the ISP level then there's VPNs. If you have Customs enforce it, well good luck getting the already under performing Customs to do anything.

[Handsprime]

Quick question, does this ban only new stuff? Or used stuff as well?

Because if it bans everything, it'll have a negative impact on Australia as there are many things you simply can't find in Australia, but easily on eBay.

[1AZRAEL1]

So far as we can tell, it's a blanket. So, everything

[DaptoDog]

Just a negotiating tactic. If they really did this they would be cutting off their nose to spite their face. They do $5b of sales in Australia, a good proportion would be purchases from offshore sellers.

[Paulbot]

How does eBay work with VAT or US state sales taxes? Surely these things are built in to the system somehow.

[janda the red]

this would suck big time if it went through.... although there's always a way to get around it.

i'd be getting my overseas buddies to buy all my vintage stuff for me and ship over "gifts"

[Chevron Action Flash]

This is poor, lazy policy from the Lib govt. This runs counter to their whole matra about individual empowerment, the power of the marketplace, free market, etc. They need to remember that they're NOT the ALP and taxing everything is not the way to build a viable economy. I suspect that if this proposed policy gets more airspace, the govt will suffer a huge backlash. EBay is a tool which many use as a means to providing an income, its not just a fun place for collectors and people needing used furniture.

This dumb policy will just encourage users to find a workaround and drive transactions further underground. Idiots.

[kovert]

"There has never been a more exciting time to be alive." - Malcolm Turnbull.

[Ode to a Grasshopper]

This is poor, lazy policy from the Lib govt. This runs counter to their whole matra about individual empowerment, the power of the marketplace, free market, etc.

Business as usual, in other words.
If it's any consolation, there's pretty good odds they'll quietly shelve this latest brain fart after the election - especially if it starts causing them polling pain. Chances are it's all about padding out the upcoming Budget bottom line - it's not actually supposed to work (whether it does or not is irrelevant), as long as they can use the phantom savings/revenue to make their ongoing fiscal incompetence look a little less dismal.

"Oh yeah, Amazon and eBay will totally do all the hard work for us, and it'll bring in Eleventy Billion Dollars worth of extra GST revenue!"