Labor defends import protection for Australia's book publishers

Labor has announced it will oppose moves to lift the parallel importation restrictions on books to maintain protection for the Australian publishing industry.

The publishing industry welcomed the announcement, and said that removing the rules would have a direct negative impact on Australian culture and jobs with no tangible consumer benefit.

Under the restrictions, books cannot be imported for resale if an Australian publisher has acquired exclusive rights and publishes it within 30 days of its release overseas. Booksellers can import overseas editions if a book is unavailable from the local publisher for longer than 90 days.

In 2015 the Ian Harper competition policy review recommended the abolition of all parallel importation restrictions, including those in the Copyright Act applying to books. The review found import restrictions act as an “implicit tax” on Australian consumers and lifting them would “potentially lower prices”.

The move was opposed by authors but the government accepted the recommendation, subject to review by the Productivity Commission.

Before the election Labor said it would consult about the rule change. Figures in the left faction including Anthony Albanese called for retention of the rules.

On Friday, opposition leader Bill Shorten announced Labor would oppose any attempt to tear up the rules.

“Australians can already buy books published in other countries online in small amounts, and can continue to do so, but parallel import restrictions on books stop cheaper foreign copies of books being brought into the country in bulk, undercutting our local market,” he said.

Shorten said removing the rules would result in fewer stories from local authors being published, citing the example of New Zealand where lifting the restriction “dramatically reduced the production of local writing and decimated the local publishing industry”.

He said lifting the rules would result in “serious job losses” in an industry that employs 20,000 people, including printing, manufacturing and independent booksellers who rely on “sell or return” policies from local publishers to stay afloat.

The president of the Australian Publishers Association, Louise Adler, said blocking the rule change would ensure “Australian writers can continue to inspire us knowing their writing and their livelihoods matter”.

The chief executive of the Australian Society of Authors, Juliet Rogers, said removing the restrictions “would disadvantage our authors in an increasingly competitive global marketplace that is based on territorial rights”.

Many countries including the US, the UK, Canada and some European countries maintain territorial copyright regimes to protect their publishing industries.

Acclaimed children’s author, Jackie French, told Guardian Australia she had been worried that “Malcolm Turnbull would be the grinch that would steal Christmas” but Labor’s decision had brought back her festive cheer.

French said her first book, Diary of a Wombat, “would never have been published without the parallel importation law” because international publishers would not take a risk on an Australian book.

She said without the restrictions, books could be imported from countries with no copyright agreement with Australia, resulting in Australia not earning revenue from its cultural exports.