Apple Australia managing director Tony King at the launch of the Apple Store in George Street, Sydney. King, who is hardly ever in the public eye and has been described as a "quiet, strong type", had agreed in March to meet Husic by July 16 to personally explain the pricing of Apple's products. But despite Husic making several follow up calls, no meeting was arranged. That led Husic to call out Apple in Parliament again this Wednesday night. He said that while Apple has recently reduced the prices of apps, music and other content bought through iTunes was still significantly more expensive, while the new MacBook Air and the new Apple Thunderbolt displays were $300 and $270 more expensive for Australians, respectively. "Apple refused to respond and I am staggered by their behaviour: they've snubbed consumer, media and parliamentary interest in this matter," Husic said. The strong comments prompted Apple to call Husic yesterday to arrange a meeting.

"Apple did suddenly find my telephone number and rang me yesterday and we are trying to find a time because I'm in Canberra next week [and] Tony King's in the States," Husic said in a phone interview this morning. With Apple founder Steve Jobs and his US executives doing most of the talking on behalf of the company, King, who was recruited by Apple in 2003 having previously worked at IBM and Dell, stays largely behind the scenes. One Sydneysider who spotted King in the Sydney Apple Store wondered if staff knew who he was. Apple is far from the only culprit engaging in price discrimination. The Productivity Commission's report into retail released earlier this month identified significant price differentials between Australia and overseas as one of the key reasons for consumers increasingly shopping via foreign websites. It said that the practice "effectively treats consumers in one region as willing, or able, to tolerate significantly higher prices than those in other countries".

The commission said that company excuses for why this occurs – such as Australia being a small market – "in most cases are not persuasive, especially in the case of downloaded music, software and videos, for example, where the costs of delivery to the customer are practically zero and uniform around the world". Husic gave several examples in his speech on Wednesday night. Lenovo's ThinkPad X1 laptop, released in May, costs $1959 here despite the same model selling in the US for as little as $1399. Microsoft's software is also significantly more expensive in Australia. Its Office 365 flagship cloud productivity suite costs 76 per cent more here than in the US. But by far the biggest premium is paid by those buying Adobe software. Adobe Creative Suite costs $US699 overseas but nearly $1200 in Australia.

Video games, even those made in Australia such as the recent blockbuster L.A. Noire, are regularly up to 60 per cent more expensive in Australia compared to the US and Britain. In many cases, significant price discrimination occurs even when the product is downloaded electronically, which should theoretically mean there are few excuses for price differences as there are no additional costs borne by the manufacturer. Husic said families, young people and businesses "should not be fleeced for the sake of Silicon Valley's bottom line". "These companies would simply not do this to consumers in their home countries. Why do it in ours?," he said. Husic said if IT companies were not prepared to be transparent about their pricing decisions then it was time for the pricing watchdog, the ACCC, to "take up the case for long-suffering consumers and carry out a formal inquiry into why these prices differ so wildly".

Husic today said that he believed the ACCC had powers to "take action against companies they believe are ripping customers off". He had raised the issue with the Treasurer, Wayne Swan, and the Parliamentary Secretary to the Treasurer, David Bradbury. The ACCC, Bradbury, and Assistant Treasurer Bill Shorten have been approached for comment. In an interview with Delimiter, Adobe senior marketing director Mark Phibbs said the technology industry should not be singled out. Cars, he said, were also far more expensive in Australian than the rest of the world. "I don't think it's an issue unique to the software industry - I think it's an overall issue across the economy ... I don't think you can single out one industry and do an investigation there," he said, adding that the price differentials were partly due to the fact that the Australian retail market was not as competitive as in the US. Husic said this morning he was "happy that the companies are starting to open up and this debate is getting them to talk about this issue whereas in the past they remained mum ... but there's still a long way to go".

"I reckon without independent involvement through the ACCC or a similar type body that we won't get to the bottom of it - we've just got to lay the cards on the table," he said. A spokesman for Bradbury said in a statement that the Productivity Commission discussed issues of international pricing in its recent report on retail, "specifically the contribution of high consumer demand for Apple products and lack of support from consumers for competitors". Loading "While this is an area of consumer and competition policy that will continue to be monitored, ultimately, competition in the marketplace is what drives prices down and consumers should shop around for the best deals on hardware, software and digital content." This reporter is on Twitter: @ashermoses