3 ms·

> This sounds a bit like the general situation in Australia. As a Canadian living in Australia since 2011, I have to disagree. Politically Canada is much more

> This sounds a bit like the general situation in Australia. As a Canadian living in Australia since 2011, I have to disagree. Politically Canada is much more of a protectionist nanny state than Australia. For mobile service in particular (i.e., the topic of this dicussion), Australia is much more competitive than Canada despite also being a very large, sparsely populated country. I pay $25/month for unlimited calls and 18 GB of 4G data (https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/value-packs/ https://www.aldimobile.com.au/plans/value-packs/). Unlike Canada, Australia allows strong, foreign competitors to provide mobile service (e.g., Vodafone and Optus). Other ways in which Australia is less protectionist than Canada: - parallel private healthcare system - parallel private education system (although not at university level) - buy alcohol anywhere, not just at government owned stores - no dairy and poultry "supply management" - foreign owned supermarkets (e.g., Aldi) Australia is far from perfect (e.g., the natural gas cartel is far too powerful) but on the whole there's far less government interference that protects cozy domestic oligopolies compared Canada.

tpmx 7y ago
Sorry, I guess I was unclear. I wasn't talking about the Telstra situation. It's not great but it also not Canada level bad. I also wasn't talking about healthcare/alcohol etc. I think where Australia suffers is in things like imported goods (often there's an extra 20-40% markup beyond the maybe 5% higher shipping cost. Or sometimes it's shipped directly from China, but still way more expensive. I think many brand owners have just decided Australia will be able to tolerate a higher cost than the rest of the world.
- jbarham 7y ago
  I agree that there used to be a noticeable markup for e.g. electronics sold in Australia when the AUD was worth more than the USD. However, now that the AUD is worth ~USD 0.67, prices are close to the exchange rate plus 10% GST. For example, I recently bought the Pixel 3a for A$650 which is close enough to US$400 + GST.
- megablast 7y ago
  > I think where Australia suffers is in things like imported goods (often there's an extra 20-40% markup beyond the maybe 5% higher shipping cost. Oh yeah, crazy that somewhere in the middle of nowhere is more expensive than one that is not.
  - zxcmx 7y ago
    So sure it's hardly the whole logistics story (volume, volume, volume)... but Australia is actually closer to S.E Asia (where a large volume of e.g. electronics goods are made or assembled) than the U.S.

tpmx 7y ago

Sorry, I guess I was unclear. I wasn't talking about the Telstra situation. It's not great but it also not Canada level bad. I also wasn't talking about healthcare/alcohol etc. I think where Australia suffers is in things like imported goods (often there's an extra 20-40% markup beyond the maybe 5% higher shipping cost. Or sometimes it's shipped directly from China, but still way more expensive. I think many brand owners have just decided Australia will be able to tolerate a higher cost than the rest of the world.

jbarham 7y ago
I agree that there used to be a noticeable markup for e.g. electronics sold in Australia when the AUD was worth more than the USD. However, now that the AUD is worth ~USD 0.67, prices are close to the exchange rate plus 10% GST. For example, I recently bought the Pixel 3a for A$650 which is close enough to US$400 + GST.
megablast 7y ago
> I think where Australia suffers is in things like imported goods (often there's an extra 20-40% markup beyond the maybe 5% higher shipping cost. Oh yeah, crazy that somewhere in the middle of nowhere is more expensive than one that is not.
- zxcmx 7y ago
  So sure it's hardly the whole logistics story (volume, volume, volume)... but Australia is actually closer to S.E Asia (where a large volume of e.g. electronics goods are made or assembled) than the U.S.