Retail king Gerry Harvey says nation’s excessive regulation has ‘nothing to do with selling fridges’
Veteran retailer Gerry Harvey has slammed Australia’s excessive government regulation he says has nothing do with selling a fridge and is seemingly ‘getting worse everyday’.
Veteran retailer Gerry Harvey has slammed Australia’s excessive government regulation that he says has nothing do with selling a fridge and is seemingly “getting worse everyday”.
The Harvey Norman chair on Friday also said foot traffic in his stores had “diminished somewhere between 10 and 20 per cent” over the past several months, with tax changes, rising interest rates, and the housing downturn making consumers nervous.
Mr Harvey warned to expect more bankruptcies this year because “you’ve got this problem with government and regulators out there and they’re making it so difficult for business”.
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By continuing you agree to our Terms and Privacy Policy.“They just don’t get it. You’re in business to make a profit, you’re not in business to comment and get involved in all these other serious activities,” he told The West Australian.
“If you look at our annual report . . . it’s 161 pages full of s..t and compliance.
“We’ve got to get involved in climate change, we’ve got to get involved in gender, we’ve got to get involved with compliance and on and on and on, page after page after page. When is it going to stop? What’s it got to do with selling a fridge?”
Earlier this week, the bosses of Wesfarmers and Coles also took aim at the nation’s excessive red tape.
Mr Harvey’s comments come as the furniture, electronics and white goods giant reported a 3.1 per cent lift in full-year revenue to $9.64 billion.
That was made up of $6.58b in aggregated Australian franchisee sales and $3.05b in overseas company-operated revenue.
But Harvey Norman noted the result was boosted by a strong first half and trading conditions have become more variable in the final six months of the 2026 financial year as it faced higher costs.
Mr Harvey said the downturn in consumer confidence had deepened, with less foot traffic coming into his stores.
“But that’s happened across all discretionary retailers. The only (retailers) that are probably not having that problem is maybe the food shops, Chemist Warehouse, pet shops,” he said.
“We’ve got to sit out there now as a retailer and work out how we can get more people into our stores.”
Mr Harvey said Harvey Norman had invested millions of dollars into a new promotional campaign on outdoor living in a bid to drive shoppers back to his stores.
“When you look at (the advertisement) you’ll be blown away and the idea of that is to get more people into the store and sell them something that makes their lifestyle better,” he said.
Harvey Norman said sales growth in 2026 was supported by continued momentum across technology-led categories, including next generation AI products and devices, together with contributions from new store openings across international markets.
Group earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation rose 5 per cent compared with the previous year to $1.18b, while net profit grew 2 per cent to $528.5m.
Profit was hit by an $18.8m Federal Court fine flowing from the corporate regulator’s proceedings against Harvey Norman and Latitude over misleading promotions.
