Book printing blues – Federal Minister responds to Andy McCourt
In this, my final news commentary of the year, I’d like to share with you some extracts from a letter The Hon Ian Macfarlane MP, Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources, has written back regarding the state of Australia book printing.
“I too would like to see more Australian print businesses winning contracts to print books about Australia and Australians, for sale in the Australian market. However, the Government believes the best way to achieve this is through improving the industry’s global competitiveness, rather than imposing printing restrictions on publishers.”
“Competitiveness and sustainability for firms in the global economy today are underpinned by productivity, innovation and appropriate strategic positioning based on the competitive essence of a business. This is especially the case in increasingly knowledge-based industries where the printing industry has a major role.”
“Specifically for the printing industries, the Australian Government also provided $48m in assistance through the Enhanced Printing Industry Competitiveness Scheme (EPICS). This program was developed consistent with the findings of the Printing Industries Action Agenda. It supported firms in the industry generally to enhance the competitiveness of the Australian Book Production industry by encouraging innovation, infrastructure development, business development and training skills formation.”
“A number of the studies undertaken through EPICS for the benefit of the book production industry also had spin-off benefits for the wider printing industry. One of the EPICS projects undertaken by the PIAA was a study of the industry’s international competitiveness. I understand the report highlights a number of reasons why Australian printers may not be considered to be competitive with Asian print businesses and suggests actions that the industry might consider to improve its ability to win business in competition with its international counterparts.”
“The Government has demonstrated a commitment to the continued health of the Australian printing industries. I believe good foundation work has been done through the Action Agenda and EPICS program. It is now up to the industry to work with others in its value chain, including publishers, to enhance its capability and competitiveness.”
My Call
There can be no doubt that Ian Macfarlane is well informed on our industry. Since EPICS and the Print21 Action Agenda, the overall industry is in better shape as a result of mergers, the exit of inefficient producers from the industry and general economic conditions.
However, the specific area of colour books, other than paperbacks, remains fogged up with misunderstanding, misinformation and a detachment from reality that defies the factual evidence.
The answer to the question Why do publishers print offshore and ship back into Australia for local consumption? is easy – because it’s cheaper.
The answer to the question Why can Guandong Province, PRC, printers quote 50 –30 per cent lower prices than Australia? is more complex, and in some cases downright worrying.
Saying it’s up to Australian book printers to compete efficiently without any form of incentive is akin to sending our Olympic swimmers to compete with 10Kg of lead in their Speedos!
It’s not a level playing field out there Minister!
The Government’s own Measuring the International Competitiveness of Australian Book Producers report identifies the on-costs (Super, Payroll Tax, Leave, Workcover Insurance) faced by Australian printers as between 29.7% and 35.23% depending on which state. One printer said real on-costs are more like 40%.
In most of Asia, the on-costs are five per cent or less.
Guandong printers earn around 50-60 cents an hour. Is this a way for Australia to become competitive perhaps? They have the same presses, supposedly pay the same for paper ( which they don’t) so should we cut everyone’s pay by 95 per cent to be ‘competitive?’
How about abandoning Australia’s proud environmental achievements in the forestry/pulp industry, such as the fantastic Swanbank coated paper mill near Ipswich, Queensland? Hang the EIS, let’s get back to polluting.
Why? Because much of China’s pulp comes from the world’s largest pulp mill, Aracruz in Brazil. Heck, who needs Amazon Rainforest, the natives and biodiversity it contains anyway. Also, when Australia and most western countries boycotted paper and pulp from Indonesia’s APRIL Company, which clear felled Sumatra virgin forests, guess where they found a ready market for its pulp?
Additionally, the world’s biggest natural softwood timber resource is in the Russian Far East. Much of it is illegally felled by cartels connected to the Russian Mafia with truckloads of it crossing the Sino-Russian border to be pulped and made into paper. Don’t laugh – UN studies have shown up to 40 per cent of the total Russian economy is controlled by the Vory y Zakone (Thieves in Law), or mafia. They have ‘legitimate businesses’ for all manner of goods – including trees. Anyone doubting this, I will happily refer to the UN, US and UK government reports.
USA printers are suffering too
It’s the same in the world’s biggest print town, Chicago. The Business Ledger there reports that some printers have lost 20per cent and more of their work because publishers decided to ‘ship overseas.’
Joe Orlandino of Edge Publishing said “Even catalogues, brochures and directories for our local Chambers of Commerce are shipping overseas. I find it reprehensible to go to a Chamber event and hear people say ‘buy local’ when they are jobbing work overseas. When confronted with that, they stick their head in the ground. They act like they don’t know or don’t want to know.”
Sound familiar?
So, we do not need lectures from Book Publishers or Ministers about how uncompetitive our book printers are. What we need is action to stop books entering Australia that are:
This is not a call for protectionism. Far from it. It is illegal to import elephant Ivory and tiger skins into Australia because they are threatened with extinction. Why should we countenance making their habitats extinct? There is plenty of good ‘clean’ paper to be had but, of course, it costs a little more. Swanbank will be leading the way when it’s up and running.
Faced with the current situation, Australian book printers can not win back more than a trickle of colour bookwork from offshore on price. It’s futile to try, no matter how brave the effort. The best you can do is open up a factory in China or Vietnam and try to repatriate some of the profits.
For the government to say “well, we’ve thrown some dollars at it to compensate for GST, now it’s all up to you” is naive in the extreme. The motor industry, textile/ clothing/footware and other manufacturing areas receive massive Government assistance. Book printing receives very little.
We have even seen senior ministers officially endorsing books about Australia, which are then printed offshore. Inadvertently maybe but it’s hardly “demonstrating a commitment to the continued health of the Australian printing industry.”
Of course, globalization is at the core of the argument. It’s not right to say we can export X and Y but not import Z. Fair enough, our markets must be open, but let’s apply the same standards to imported books as have to be applied for domestically-produced ones.
So let’s try and ‘bring our books back home’ in 2005. But we can’t do it without Government awareness and support. Ian Mafarlane’s interest in and knowledge of the book printing industry is no doubt earnest and well-intentioned. In him we have an excellent conduit to Government.
Make your views known to him at:
The Hon Ian Macfarlane MP
Minister for Industry, Tourism and Resources
Parliament House
Canberra, ACT 2600
Wishing you all a joyous, blessed and relaxing Festive Season. See you in 2005.