RETAIL chief Gerry Harvey has accused his own wife and family of white-anting Australian jobs by shopping on foreign websites to save cash.

The Harvey Norman founder said "at least half" of his family - wife and chief executive Katie Page included - had cyber-shopped offshore in the past year.

"They do it because it's a lot cheaper. I can't tell my own family 'Don't do that, it's bad for the country'," he said.

"They know how I feel but they save money on things like dresses. In the meantime someone's losing their job."

The power couple of Australian retailing is spearheading a campaign to close a tax loophole on goods bought through foreign websites.

Cyber-shoppers avoid the 10 per cent GST on imported items less than $1000, while Australian retailers have to charge customers import duties and GST on identical merchandise - a factor blamed for David Jones' 40 per cent profit plunge yesterday.

Ms Page said yesterday she rarely cyber-shopped but "everyone is doing it" - including her kids.

"I can't say that I haven't ever but I'm too busy to shop, to be quite frank," she said.

"If I was after something that I couldn't get here, and I really need it, sure I would. Certainly our daughter does, and our son with music - if my 19-year-old wants to buy a $50 dress online there's nothing I can do about it."

Ms Page called on the government to scrap the GST exemption on imports costing less than $1000. "How hard is it to explain to people that if they want quality education and infrastructure and health, you pay tax?" she said.

Mr Harvey yesterday said smugglers could be exploiting the cyber-shopping phenomenon to post drugs to Australia.

"What's coming in, in all these parcels?" he said.

"Have they got guns? Drugs? Prohibited things for agriculture? They're not being checked. If I wanted to bring something illegal into Australia that's the best way of doing it."

A confidential Customs report, released under Freedom of Information laws, has warned Treasury that any requirement to check the GST status of parcels would "divert border screening resources" away from illegal imports.

A Customs spokeswoman said 14,696 cargo and mail items containing drugs had been detected in 2010-11.

The government has refused to close the GST loophole, on the grounds it would spend more collecting the GST than it would raise in taxes.

Originally published as Harvey slams family's online shopping