Andrew Barr
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Change needed to make books more affordable for all kids

Submitted by Andrew Barr on 1 June, 2009 - 05:00

The Productivity Commission is currently reviewing the Copyright Act 1968 that restricts the parallel importation of books. In effect this means that where a book is released in another country, it cannot be imported into Australia if an Australian publisher decides to publish it locally within 30 days of the original publication date.

By making books artificially more expensive, this outdated and anti-competitive law is making it harder for kids, especially those from less well-off families to buy and read books.
 
It’s also making it harder for our school libraries to get as many books for their buck as they could.
 
Under the Education Revolution we are all working and investing millions to improve literacy and numeracy for kids from low-socioeconomic backgrounds in particular. Any law that makes books more expensive is bad law. Any law that means our school libraries have fewer books available to students is bad law. Any law that effectively makes it harder for kids to read is bad law.
 
So I will use next week’s meeting of Education Ministers to seek their assistance to lobby the Commonwealth to change the law to allow full competition and bring down the price of books.
 
In its qualified comparison the Productivity Commission’s Draft Report found the retail prices of books sampled were 9 per cent higher in Australia than the UK and 30 percent higher than in the US. It also found the cheapest Australian edition of books was on average 22 per cent more expensive than the cheapest edition in the UK and over 50 per cent higher than the cheapest edition in the US.
 
The changes we are seeking will not damage Australian culture.  The argument that Australian authors will be damaged by this is a myth.
 
Australian authors sell because they are quality authors. As long as they continue to produce quality works they will sell books and remain on school curricula. In fact this will be good for Australian authors.
 
As former ACCC Chief Professor Alan Fels pointed out recently, the Australian recording industry has flourished since similar restrictions were removed.
 
I hope all Education Ministers will join with me to push for a fair go on books for all kids.