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I listened in disbelief to a so-called discussion on Phillip Adams’ Radio National’s “Late Night Live” over the issue of lifting the parallel importation on books into Australia between Bob Carr and Publisher Louise Adler. Most Aussie authors and publishers don’t support it, though there is a minority of people, some with vested interests along with some chain stores, who do. Essentially it means that Australian publishers are no longer protected from direct overseas competition. This protection has been good because it allowed Australian writers and our book industry to be nurtured and to flourish. When I sat down to write my first novel, it was unusual to find a home grown list of bestsellers. By supporting and developing our Aussie authors, publishers built up lists of authors that Australian readers wanted to buy and enjoy. These authors, myself included, who write about our people, places, culture, would not have had that success without this publishing support.
Australian authors would find it difficult to compete on the world stage if we hadn’t had the success we have at home first. Foreign editions (ie UK and USA) of books would come in at the same time, or earlier than the release of Australian editions. And some Australian authors’ work would come in with the Aussie slang taken out and reconfigured to suit American readers. The argument for this madness is that it would make books cheaper here. So we might save a dollar or two on a book (if the exchange rate is still in our favour) but we lose our book industry and our culture. People like Bob Carr (who is now on the board of Dymocks) who is pushing to take away the import restrictions, argue, among things, that a survey shows people want cheaper books. Aha, it’s all in the question isn’t it? If you ask people do they want cheaper food, petrol, books? They’ll say, sure. If you ask people do they want to save a dollar and lose our literature and culture, more likely they’ll say no. Bob Carr was so rude on Phillip’s program, I kicked the radio and Phillip tells me he had more complaints than he’s ever had so Carr won’t be invited again.
Cheers
Di’s latest book The Islands, published by Pan Macmillan, is now on sale.
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