THE Harvey Norman founder, Gerry Harvey, will step back from the retailers' campaign for GST to be imposed on overseas online purchases, saying he is hurt by the avalanche of criticism directed at him and feels that getting involved was ''suicidal''.

Mr Harvey has conceded that the launch of full-page advertisements during the Boxing Day sales period was ''bad timing'' and that the retailers' message had been poorly communicated.

Gerry Harvey.

He said the rise of social media such as Twitter and Facebook had increased the ''vicious and hateful'' attacks against him and a fellow retail boss, Solomon Lew.

Mr Lew led the campaign, involving a coalition of retail companies, most of which are owned by the Lew family, which called on the government to end the GST exemption on imported goods worth less than $1000.