The Labor Party has given Australia's authors and publishers an early Christmas present, revealing it will oppose any attempt by the government to relax parallel import restrictions on books, leaving the changes unlikely to pass the Parliament.
The law currently prevents the importation of cheaper foreign books but the Coalition last year backed the view of the Harper competition policy review, which proposed that restrictions be removed.
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Labor, which considered but abandoned the reform when it was in government, says liberalisation would "undercut Australia's flourishing publishing industry, which nurtures local authors who produce the stories which are so meaningful to Australians".
And persisting with their boosted focus on Australian workers amid the global popularity of protectionist messages, the opposition warned of serious job losses.
"Labor will continue to fight for our Australian stories, and the tens of thousands of jobs which depend on a strong book publishing industry," Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said in a statement.
As it stands, Australian publishers have 30 days to establish their copyright for a book by making it available in Australia. Book retailers are then restricted from importing more copies from overseas suppliers. Individuals are still able to order books online from foreign outlets.
Roughly 20,000 Australians are employed in the publishing, printing and selling of books.
To water down the laws, introduced in the early 1990s, the Copyright Act would need to be amended. Labor's opposition means the government would be forced to seek the support of the Greens or crossbenchers. With the Greens and Nick Xenophon Team, who have previously backed the status quo, Labor could block the changes.
![Opposition Leader Bill Shorten.](/web/20161212100109im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/q/r/d/h/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt72d1.png/1481262011858.jpg)
Booker Prize winner Tom Keneally welcomed Labor's position, saying it would protect an important "ecology of publishing" in Australia.
"My old cobber from the republican years, Malcolm [Turnbull], has said that he wants a culture of innovation and we won't have that without our own book publishing industry," Mr Keneally told Fairfax Media.
![Tom Keneally has been a vocal defender of parallel import restrictions.](/web/20161212100109im_/http://www.watoday.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/b/a/9/p/image.related.articleLeadNarrow.300x0.gt72d1.png/1481262011858.jpg)
"We don't want want to go back to that era when a book by an Australian and, above all, books interpreting modern society to ourselves are so rare."
He said all the extensive range of jobs associated with books will be "diminished if not obliterated without a local publishing industry".
The Productivity Commission found Australian readers pay 35 per cent more than those in the United States and has also recommended changes to intellectual property provisions, which would see creative works opened to "fair use" without compensation.
A legion of prominent Australian authors - including Mr Keneally, Christos Tsiolkas, Richard Flanagan and Peter Carey - have strongly opposed removing restrictions.
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