Rob Walker and The Hon Bruce Billson MP

Today myself and Rob Walker attended a business lunch hosted by the ARA. Guest of honour was Federal Minister for Small Business, Bruce Billson.

The minister addressed an audience of about 40 representatives of retail and related industries. He covered various topics including regulation reform and prohibitive commercial rents.

Afterwards he invited questions from the audience and Rob took the opportunity to ask where the government stood on the GST threshold for individual imports. Mr Billson replied that they intended include this in the last budget, but were prevented from doing so by the WA treasurer over a dispute on the amount of GST the state receives.

Once again we urge WA members to write to the state treasurer and their local MP to persuade them to take action on this. This is currently under review and there will be an interstate meeting to resolve this.

Rob also pressed home the point that 80% of the music industries products fall under the current threshold. The minister replied that in order to cover any significant portion of the individual imports the threshold would have to be reduced substantially and that even a $500 limit wouldn’t be low enough.

The ARA are in direct contact with the minister and now the AMA is a part of the conversation on this subject.

We will take every opportunity to represent the members interests at both state and federal levels.

If you would like to know more please contact Rob or myself or better still, pin us down at AMAC.

All the best,

Tony Burn
The Resource Corporation