THE NEWS WRAP: Retail Coalition set to ramp up its fight this week

Some Queensland businesses won’t survive the floods, despite the massive clean-up operation that is underway, according to the state’s leading business lobby group.

Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland said that farmers, markets and abattoirs have been particularly badly hit by the floods, with some expected to never recover from the disaster.

Retailers fight on

The Retail Coalition, the group of major retailers campaigning to impose GST on overseas online purchases, is set to ramp up its fight this week.

The group is set to incorporate its activities, allowing it to operate as an independent company. This will allow it to hire staff and appoint a hands-on CEO.

Retailers including Myer, David Jones and Harvey Norman have been pushing the government to “level the playing field” with overseas retailers by imposing GST on online orders.

Wikipedia turns 10

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has ruled out introducing an advertising model for the user-edited site, which has celebrated its tenth anniversary.

Wales said that he intends to continue Wikipedia’s fundraising platform in an attempt to increase users from 400 million to one billion by 2015.

Wine exporters enjoy Chinese boom

Wine exporters enjoyed a bumper year in 2010, with strong growth in the Chinese market. Chinese consumption of Australian wine jumped by 36% to 55 million litres. Yearly consumption in China is set to increase by 20% to 126.4 million cases by 2014.