Good Morning Mr Husic. You mission, should you choose to accept it...

So. Ed Husic has decided to rattle the cage of the IT industry about pricing discrepancies between the US and Australia.

Congratulations Ed. You scored yourself a cheap headline by calling out the Managing Director of Apple Australia - Tony King.

Having been in the ICT industry for a long time I don’t disagree with Ed that the pricing discrepancies between the US and Australia are inexplicable but, seriously Ed, why didn’t you call out Microsoft, or maybe even Adobe - throw Lenovo in there as well.

Two of these three companies have had Australia grabbing their ankles for a long time and their mysterious pricing policies show much wilder discrepancies than Apple does.

Maybe your aides should do a little more research, because, in all honesty Ed. Going for the cheap headline is what I’ve come to expect from a politician. All sizzle and no sausage.

Maybe, Ed, you should get your staff to look at this article that was in IT News Apple by no means the worst Aussie price gouger, Mr Husic.

It gives a little more insight into the problem, with some numbers. I mean really Ed, if you want to have a really good look at some of this stuff maybe you should look at Adobe, and I don’t think anyone has had a real long hard look at Cisco and their pricing policies?

Really Ed if you wanted to become a hero to millions of consumers and even Australian business you should have a good hard look at Microsoft and Adobe. Get their pricing to look a bit more reasonable and you’d give back to Australian business millions of dollars in money spent on software.

The fact is Ed, while I wish something like this would happen, I doubt it will. The reason I doubt it is that as a politician you’re going to want to raise re-election funds. These guys make political donations and it seems to me that no politicians are left in Australia that have the sausage to match their sizzle.

This’ll be another flash in the pan where you can sit back and say “I raised the issue, but, the others wouldn’t back me up so re-elect me and I’ll maintain the rage. I spoke to Treasury. I spoke to the ACCC and they’re the ones who aren’t doing anything.”

Yeah. Right Ed. The only rage you’ll end up maintaining is if they raise the prices in the members bar.

I’d like to think you’ll prove me wrong, but, somehow I doubt it. If you were serious, I mean really serious, about this maybe you should spend some time talking to people on the ground in the ICT industry rather than using having a sit down with the MD of Apple Australia.

Talk to the guys who have to make IT work in small to medium businesses who run into daily examples of price discrimination in order to keep their businesses running efficiently.

I don’t think you’d do that Ed. There’s no headline in it for you.