Books Create Australia

The Productivity Commission (PC) suggests Australia repeals Parallel Importation Restriction (PIR) legislation, among other proposals detailed in its recent draft report on intellectual property. While this might sound complicated, irrelevant to you, or just eye-glazingly boring, it’s a very important issue to all of us who love stories. If the PC’s proposal is taken up by the Federal Government, it seriously risks stifling Australian writing culture.

Have you read Tim Winton’s Cloud Street? I recall enjoying it in high school. Markus Zusak’s The Book Thief? The Secret River by Kate Grenville? Ice Station by Matthew Reilly?

Do you remember reading, or have you read with your children, Possum Magic by Mem Fox? How about Graeme Base’s Animalia?

Or for young adults; Looking for Alibrandi by Melina Marchetta? Isobelle Carmody’s Obernewtyn series? John Marsden’s Tomorrow When the War Began? Hating Alison Ashley by Robin Klein? Puberty Blues by Gabrielle Carey and Kathy Lette?

Not to mention stories by the incredible stable of Pantera Press authors.

This is just a small list of Australian authors, a fraction of our homegrown writing talent. There are many books like these that have impacted our lives over the years. Stories that have taught us life lessons, related to us at pivotal moments, or provided great entertainment. Some of these stories are spectacularly Australian in content, and others set elsewhere or in fantasy worlds but written by Australian creatives. Many of these stories have gone on to be adapted into fantastic films and box office sensations. 

So I am talking to you, fellow Australian, lover of stories told by Australians – whether you choose to consume them on screen, tablet device, mobile, or inside the pages of a book – it is you who will be affected by these changes. Can you imagine a world where you never encountered a single one of these great stories?

Without being overly dramatic, that world is much closer than you think.

By removing parallel importation restrictions, the government would be making it an even riskier business proposition for Australian publishers to invest in Australian authors. And equally, they would be disincentivising Australian authors to continue writing (in Australia).

Simply put, if this proposal were to go ahead, we risk seeing fewer and fewer Australian stories, perhaps no new Cloud Streets, no new Possum Magics. The next generation of Australians could well grow up in a world where they’d never encounter an Australian story or a great read that’s written by a talented Aussie.

I encourage you to read up on this debate for yourself. The document put together by the Australian Publishers Association is a great starting point, as is the BooksCreate website. In addition, I’ve outlined some key points of the discussion here.

This issue does matter. It directly impacts you. It is important that Australia continues to support innovation and creativity in Australia, because at the end of the day we’re all about Great Storytelling.

Please join the conversation #BooksCreate.