#LoveOzYA Committee & Community response to: Productivity Commission’s Report on Australia’s intellectual property arrangements

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Our committee is writing to you today with the collective concerns of our community, regarding a number of detrimental outcomes resulting from proposed changes to the Copyright Act 1968 (the Act). These include; free import of books, removing territorial copyright, and a general failure to recognise the unique needs of Indigenous artists under the current, and proposed changes to, the Act. We oppose the changes suggested by the Productivity Commission as we believe these changes will have a disastrous effect on Australian literature and see local stories and local authors devalued. We are in full agreement with the view expressed by Australian Publisher’s Association, in particular, that removing parallel import restrictions will not achieve the government’s intended outcomes; that out of date data on prices is being relied upon, and that the proposed changes will result in:1

• Fewer Australian authors and fewer Australian books published;
• Less diversity of books available to Australian readers;
• Jobs lost in Australian publishing, bookselling and printing;
• Lower royalties and lower advances for Australian authors;
• Less promotion of Australian authors and trade in their rights internationally;
• Further reductions in the independent bookselling sector.