He is Australias No 1 retailer, he has made a fortune out of retail sales and is renowned for his exquisite timing and business acumen, he is the brains behind the advertising campaign by the major retailers demanding a level playing field with online competitors, and now Soloman Lew has found a patsy in Gerry Harvey to front the shonky campaign on behalf of shonky employers to impose an unfair tax on people who buy products on line.
Gerry Harvey and Soloman Lew are multi-billionaires
Australia’s retailers have achieved record post-Christmas sales despite their doom and gloom predictions that online shoppers were about to wreck the industry and cause mass unemployment.
Before the Christmas period, and leading right up until Christmas, the Australian Retailers Association was demanding that unless every man, women and child did not max out their credit cards we were in for a very, very gloomy economy. Almost subliminally the message was that, unless you went into hock for the next few years, you personally would be responsible for the mounting number of souls thrown on the unemployment scrapeheap.
How often did the capitalist media trot out a spokesperson from the major retailers to remind us to spend big, to blow our money or else we were in for a very gloomy festive period? Talk about crying wolf!
Myers and David Jones plus the Australian Retailers Association were awarded free air time on every commercial television and radio station every night to keep on reminding us to empty our wallets.
Now we find out that pre and post Christmas sales in excess of 69 billion have set records that are unmatched in the history of retail sales in this country.
I expect that if you were one of those that followed slavishly, emptied the wallet, sold your kids for medical experiments etc, then you can expect a big thank you from Gerry, Solomon and the rest of the motley crew.
The question here is just how many full time, not casual jobs, were created on the back of the record sales or does most of the profit go to providing Sol and Gerry a life to which they have been accustomed?
Lets be honest here, they do it to us every Christmas, all doom and gloom and then announce records profits once again.
Not to mention that it was also unAustralian not to want to fill the coffers of billionaires such as Gerry Harvy and Solomon Lew, well pass me the tissues and let me have a good cry, who do these blokes think they are kidding. The internet has finally empowered the individual and more power to us.
Also take into account that some retailers who have joined this so called “unfair” campaign are as shifty as shit house rats employing people in slave labour conditions in third world countries importing the product to be sold in this country at massive markups.
Then there are people in the rag trade who refuse to sign fair work agreements and employ “out workers”, subjecting those workers to the same slave-like conditions and all for less than $2 per hour in a lot of documented cases.
Well dont be shocked to the bootstraps, but they have also joined the campaign. Companies such as Portmans and Jacqui -E, use sweat shop conditions to produce items of clothing sold at massive markups. For these retailers to demand a “fair go” and a level playing field where the same rules that apply to everyone, is both hypocritical, greedy and outrageous.
How do these companies justify imprisoning new migrants to work in unsafe and unhealthy conditions and then cry unfair at the same time as refusing them decent wages and conditions?
The big retailers argue that people are importing goods cheaper at the expense of the local product. Bullshit. Most of the goods people are importing [under $1000 in value] are electronic goods, cameras, whitegoods etc that are now no longer made in this country .
Gerry Harvey also imports these goods but at a cheaper price because of bulk discounts, the only difference being Gerry’s mark up. Twenty years ago he set up the concept of bulk buying at bulk disounts that would see people flocking through the doors. No regard of course for the thousands of small employers and staff that could not compete on the same terms as Gerry and his ilk and are now out of work. Good one Gerry!
As the front man for this unfair tax campaign Gerry is now copping the flack, Sol cant be found, and you cant see Gerry for the dust as he retreats further down that well known dusty road .
How about a new T.V reality programme called who wants to remain a billionaire?
How about the concept of workers being afforded a fair go and a level playing field? Tthe last I heard was that working Australians were in football parlence “kicking uphill ” “kicking into the wind” and” someone had “moved the goal posts”
Working people in this country have every right to spend their money where they see fit and where it’s a real benefit to them, without filling the pockets of billionairs and their hangers on.
The major players in the campaign are now exposed as” rats with gold teeth” with all the charm of a pox doctors clerk, they will try to pull the wool over your eyes in the next 12 months with the same dubious tactics and the same dubious characters.
They say there is no honour amongst thieves lets see how long this coalition of employers will last .My prediction is that they will be about as tough as a skin on a rice custard
Unfortunately no billionaire or their cronies were hurt during the compilation of this blog