Fight continues to keep 30-day rule

Politicians and parties including Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, Labor Ministers, the National Party, Independents and Greens have each been targeted in a campaign launched by Printing Industries in a battle to keep the 30-day rule.

Following the release of the Productivity Commission’s report last week, which stated that the current restrictions create upward pressure on book prices in Australia, members of the printing and publishing industries have been outraged at the effects it could have on anyone working with books locally.

Printing Industries CEO, Philip Andersen, has written to Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd and politicians on all sides of Parliament highlighting the absurdity of the recommendations and citing the negative experience in New Zealand – the only other English-speaking country to have ended territorial copyright.

“The evidence since 1998 shows that book prices did not fall. Instead fewer New Zealand books are being published relative to the trend in other English-speaking countries and publishers have rolled back their infrastructure,” Andersen said.

“This failed experiment had such a detrimental impact on the New Zealand book industry that the representative bodies of both authors and publishers in New Zealand forwarded submissions to the Productivity Commission review urging the maintenance in Australia of the existing parallel import arrangements.”

Andersen said the Productivity Commission had itself acknowledged that the copyright changes introduced in 1991, and specifically the introduction of the 30-day rule had helped boost demand for local printing.

He told Mr Rudd that the Australian book printing industry had invested significantly in equipment, facilities and training since that time and had done much to improve its environmental responsiveness – a major differentiating factor between Australian and overseas manufacturers.

“If the Productivity Commission recommendations are implemented it will represent a mindless destruction of a thriving, creative industry without a skerrick of evidence of any offsetting national benefits and must be completely rejected by your Government,” Andersen said.

“The Commission’s recommendations not only show its total disconnection from the real world but also a disconnect from its own inquiry process. The overwhelming majority of submissions forwarded to the inquiry by authors, publishers, book printers and their representative bodies as well as the trade union movement, supported the retention of the existing arrangements.”

According to Andersen, Printing Industries has asked Rudd for a meeting with senior Ministers and himself to discuss the matter in detail.