I have had a rather bitter post about the Productivity Commission and their recommendation to remove restrictions on the parallel importation of books in Australia sitting in my drafts folder for a while now. Today I deleted it. Because we don’t need bitterness — even if we may feel it — at the moment. We need to rally. We need to demonstrate to our government why accepting this recommendation it is not in Australia’s best interest. You might note I didn’t say ‘Australian authors’ or ‘publishers’ or even ‘independent bookstores’. Allowing the parallel importation of books would be devastating not only for the writing, publishing, and printing industries, and everyone associated with them — agents, booksellers, illustrators, the list indeed goes on — but for the country as a whole. It will be devastating for the reading public, for our culture, and for our identity.
Lots of people have said this better than me. This is but a sample.
You can join the fight here.
