In some cases the price difference can be almost double - with Nintendo Wii games costing 88 per cent more here.
Suzanne Campbell,air jordan pas cher, the head of peak industry body the Australian Information Industry Association,polo ralph lauren pas cher, told the IT pricing inquiry the cost of rent, wages and warranties were higher in Australia than other markets.
"Where operating costs are higher and the market is smaller, prices may need to be higher to get a reasonable return on investment," she said.
Ms Campbell, whose association represents companies such as Microsoft, IBM, Apple, Google, Canon and Adobe, also said IT products cost more because of research and development investment.
But consumer group Choice and members of the committee driving the inquiry did not accept this reasoning, with Federal Labor MP Ed Husic calling the mark-ups a “convenient” excuse.
"I think basically the vendors have the ability to set the price, but they argue the price itself gets set by resellers on the way through,” Mr Husic, a member of the Government's Standing Committee on Infrastructure and Communication, told news.com.au.
“I think it's a very convenient way for both the resellers and the major vendors to point fingers at each other."
Mr Husic also said research and development costs could not justify higher prices because most IT products were not developed in Australia.
Choice head of campaigns Matt Levey told the inquiry the most likely cause of higher prices was international price discrimination - meaning the wholesalers were setting higher prices for the Australian market.
"We don't think rent, marketing, labour costs, GST, we don't think these factors amount to the 50 per cent price difference," Mr Levey said.
Choice compared prices on a number of products including iTunes, PC games, software, console games and hardware and found there was an average of 50 per cent difference between Australia and the US, the biggest being an 88 per cent different for Nintendo games.
"Some of the starkest figures coming out of that were I think finding that Australians pay around 52 per cent more on iTunes on the equivalent top 50 songs than US consumers,'' Mr Levey said.
"We pay 88 per cent more for Nintendo Wii console games.''
Australians also pay about 34 per cent more for popular home and business software titles and 41 per cent more for Dell computers, he said.
The Inquiry also heard from the Australian Publishers Association, the Australasian Performing Rights Association, the Australian Retail Association and the Communications Alliance.
The inquiry, which is still accepting submissions, aims to find out why Australian prices are so much higher, and find a solution to improve the position of local consumers.
- with AAP

Dear Bossy: I have no one else to turn to for some level headed advice so please help me!!! I have been married for 2 and ?? years now and have a very loving husband who supports me in many ways. Our sex life started after we were married due to religious views and it wasn???t all that I thought it would be. In the beginning we???d make love about 2 times a week which I thought was strange (I thought all men were sex crazed apes who wanted sex 24/7).

It faded quiet quickly to once or twice a month and over the last 9-12 months I???ve confronted him on several occasions asking why he wasn???t interested in sex. He would make excuses such as work as he is a shift worker and he???d try to put a bit of blame on me saying I was always tried (im never too tired for sex) I have also asked the dreaded question ???Are you having a affair???? to which he promises he is not. He also says thinks he might have a low sex drive.
This week I finally managed to get the truth out of him. He told me that he doesn???t find me that sexually attractive due to my weight. Im a larger lady (size 22) and have been since we met. He followed me that dreaded night into the lounge room and I was sobbing and telling him that I wanted out. He started to cry and said that his comment came out wrong and he didn???t mean it in that way and that he loves me very much. I told him I was leaving and he asked me to stay to which I did.
The next night he came home a bunch of flowers and a card which simply had ???please stay??? written in it. The truth of the matter is that my weight makes me what I am today. Prior to marrying him I had high self esteem and a positive image of myself. I was confident and happy. I would go out with my female friends (all who are slim) and I would come home with more phone numbers, pash attacks (kisses) and free drinks than them because I was a confident person. Since we???ve been married my self esteem, confidence and happiness within myself no longer exists. I feel as though if he wasn???t happy with who and what I am when we were married then he shouldn???t have married me at all.
My question to you and your readers is what should I do? Should I stay or should I leave him and move on with life? I can???t even look at him now. I refuse to change clothes, have a shower in front of him or even be in my underwear with him around. He betrayed my trust and he broke my heart.
Devastated

Bossy says: Hmmm. So many thoughts here, Devastated. I’m certainly torn between wanting to sit you down for a nice cup of tea and some sympathy, and giving you a bit of a kick up your “larger lady” sized back side.
I’m actually a little stunned you would consider leaving your husband because he mustered the courage to be honest about his feelings. You don’t describe a man who has ridiculed you for your weight or who makes demeaning comments. You describe a man who is supportive and loving and who, after pressure from you, admitted he does not find you sexually attractive because of your size.
I don’t expect this was easy to hear. You have been a large lady for some time by the sounds of it, and you were large when you got together. I can understand it may seem like a breach of promise that he feels this way.
And yet… I can’t help feeling you are being a bit unfair.
I think it would have been hard for your husband to tell you the truth. I think doing so must have taken a lot of guts. And yet when he finally confesses to how he feels you stack on a turn and threaten to leave. No wonder men won’t answer women honestly about issues regarding weight. Perhaps we don’t really want them to in the first place.
I think you are probably being simplistic when you suggest he shouldn’t have married you if he wasn’t happy with you in the first place. In all probability he did find you attractive then. But let’s add in a few more variables.
You didn’t have sex before you married, so maybe he wasn’t really able to make a definite judgement on the matter of sex and attraction. I wonder too whether you have put on more weight in the last two years. And I wonder whether he does also have a very low sex drive or whether your weight is a convenient excuse for problems he has sexually.
Before we start marching down that garden path however, I’d like to talk a little bit more about you. It stands out to me in your letter when you say your esteem has suffered during your marriage. It strikes me that it could not have been very stable in the first place to be knocked around by a loving husband who is just somewhat less interested in sex than you thought normal.
I think you need to take some responsibility for you own self esteem. And I think you might need to consider the possibility that at least some of your single life you were coasting along on a false sense of self esteem, pumped up on the attention of interested men.
It’s easy for anyone to feel this way. It’s the reason some celebrities think so much of themselves - everyone is always telling them how good they are. But this sort of confidence, the sort that comes from other people’s opinions of us, is no replacement for genuine self security.
I don’t buy into the whole “fat people have issues” argument. But I do think you might have some. You say “my weight makes me what I am today”. That tells me you identify heavily with your weight, or have a heavy investment in your weight.
Once again, you are not Robinson Crusoe. We all identify strongly with some aspects of ourselves. You have identified yourself as a fat person, when no doubt you are a great deal more than that.
Having identified yourself so strongly with your weight, your husband’s comments must have seemed like an attack on the very core of who you are. So this is where I sympathise. You are hurt and it is not easy just to shrug it off.
I do however think it is a bit dramatic to say your husband has betrayed your trust. He’s clearly sorry and remorseful about the pain his comments caused. I think most of us have at some time said things we later regret. I do not think that is a betrayal of trust. I think it would be a betrayal of trust for him to hide this problem from you for another decade, lying to you about being busy or stressed, when the real reason was right in front of you both the whole time.
So, in answer to your question, no, I don’t think you should move on with your life, certainly not until you have investigated whether the damage to your relationship can be repaired. You’re married. Less than three years ago you stood up in front of friends and family and vowed to stick with this relationship for better or worse. Now, at the first sign of trouble, the first real knock, the first truly painful chasm, you&#8217,doudoune moncler pas cher;re set to cut and run?
Well here’s a bulletin...that’s not the way it works. This is a marriage, not a dinner date, and it can indeed be difficult and hurtful. But you have to at least try to work things through before you call full-time.
I don’t like to think of you cowering behind the shower curtain. I think if you are truly confident about your size 22 body then you should act confident,ralph lauren Obama na pas su saisir la chance exce. Stand proud. If one person’s opinion (even someone as important as your husband) is enough to knock you down,abercrombie Pourquoi le halal a-t-il envahi la cam, then it is not real confidence.
Where to from here? Counselling for sure. Get yourselves to a relationship counsellor and see what you need to do to work this through. That’s what a woman of substance would do. She wouldn’t lay down, curl up and admit defeat.
Good marriages take communication,jordan spizike. And compromise,Le perfectionnisme agi... découragement - LEXPRESS. You must allow him to be honest and be prepared to listen with an open mind.
I don’t know if weight loss is the answer. You need to work that out with your husband. I do think, however, that you should both be willing to embrace change. If your husband said your baggy undies were a turn off, would you stubbornly wear them every day because you think he must “take you as you are"?" No. But nor do you change every aspect of yourself to suit your mate until you are no longer recognisable as the person who came into the marriage,sac longchamp pas cher.
Sometimes just considering change is the hardest thing,christian louboutin pas cher. Sometimes when people say something that suggests they would like us to change, we are hurt and withdraw. This is natural...at first. But so is change,abercrombie pas cher. Sometimes we cling so tightly to the idea of who we are we are unable to see the golden opportunities to be gained by embracing change.
I wish you and your husband all the best, Devastated. I hope that rather than spelling the end, this is a challenge that will make your relationship and each other stronger. Let us know what happens.