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The question has been raised on this thread as to the reasons for the high price of books in Australia. The answer is actually quite complex, and certainly not definitive.
Without writing an essay on the subject, I will simply say that Australia has always fostered an environment conducive to price discrimination against Australians, justifying the preservation of such an environment on flimsy arguments of public interest. This has been going on throughout Australia's existence, and has become somewhat of a tradition across the Board. It is by no means limited to only Books. One example is the continuation of legislation restricting parallel imports even to this day in respect of some industries. Such laws and attitudes, combined with Australia's relevant affluence, have effectively issued an open invitation to foreign companies to rip-off Australians, an invitation which has been eagerly accepted even by some of the World's best known companies. I have posted in other threads how I was able many years ago to import paper books from Amazon for my own reading cheaper than I could purchase them locally, even with the postage costs, not to mention being able to obtain books not released or available locally. Anecdotally, with the legislative restrictions, Australian booksellers at the time could have purchased cheaper retail in the US than wholesale here.
In the case of digital products competing with physical products, companies seek to preserve the status quo. So, for example, Adobe does not want to undermine sales of its boxed products by selling the digital versions cheaper, just as the large publishers are reluctant to undermine paper book sales by selling the ebook versions cheaper. Nor, of course, do they wish to damage the market for regional rights, which was perfectly logical for physical goods but is a totally artificial construct in relation to digital products.
So, why do large foreign companies charge higher prices to Australian's? Because they have always done so, and the regulatory environment in Australia has always allowed and even encouraged them to do so. And, of course, they don't wish to stop doing so just because of little inconveniences like the internet and digital products.
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