We all love to hate Montgomery Burns (okay, all except for Waylon Smithers). Mr Burns is the arch-capitalist. The epitome of greed is good. The man who stole the sun from Springfield to force them into 24-hour use of his nuclear energy.
Well, he aint got nothin' on Australia's Productivity Commission! After completely screwing with the Australian music industry a few years ago (anyone noticed CD prices go down - no? What a surprise!) they now want to destroy Australia's publishing industry.
Montogomery Burns would be proud!
The commission took in hundreds of submissions from authors, editors, independent book shop owners, readers, writing groups such as the Australian Society of Authors, publishers and printers nearly all of whom said that the lifting of parallel import restrictions on books would decimate the Australian publishing industry.
Yet according to commission's deputy chairman, Mike Woods Australian consumers are in effect 'subsidising foreign book producers'. What the???
The commission's main argument is that Australians pay too much for books & that lifting parallel import restrictions will make books cheaper. They are supported in this view by the 'Coalition for Cheaper Books' (also known as Dymocks, KMart, Target & Big W).
Apart from the fact that there is no evidence that books will be any cheaper with the lifting of restrictions (& we can look to our neighbours NZ for proof of this) do you really think we can trust Big W & Target to deliver cheaper books? Just look at how the supermarkets are managing to monopolise groceries & petrol prices.
Hopefully it's not too late. Take action now & send KRudd an email.
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