A victory for common sense

After a 16-month-long process, the Australian government has decided not to change the regulatory regime involving the parallel importation of books.

This is a welcome decision. It represents a triumph of common sense over ideology.

It is also a heartening and refreshing sign that the government, from the prime minister down, is able to deal with a highly complex subject in a professional, clear-sighted way while retaining core Labor values.

I also want to thank everybody who contributed to the campaign to retain territorial copyright. While it has been a painful -- sometimes agonising -- fight, I have been tremendously impressed by the thoughtfulness, commitment, and camaraderie of all the publishers, authors, literary agents, printers, organisations and individuals involved. The result was a remarkable degree of solidarity and a treasure-trove of information about the book industry and what drives the people in it.

I hope we never have to go through this again. But, if we do, we will have at our disposal what will come to be seen as a classic political case-study in how to beat propaganda with the truth.

Henry Rosenbloom

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We publish books that matter — narrative and literary nonfiction on important topics, and the best of local, international, and translated fiction.

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A victory for common sense

Multi-time winner of the Australian Small Publisher of the Year Award