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Educational and academic publishers have added their voices to those widely condemning proposals put before the Australian government last week to change rules governing parallel importation into the country.
According to Australia-based publication Bookseller+Publisher, "several educational publishers and campus booksellers have united in opposition" against the changes, recommended by the country's Productivity Commission.
This includes the removal of both the 30-day rule, which secures exclusivity for an Australian publisher bringing out a book within that period, and the 90-day rule, whereby exclusivity is removed if an order is not fulfilled within three months.
The Commission argued that the benefits of protection accrued to "publishers and authors" but "most of the costs are met by consumers" who pay higher book prices.
But, David Barnett, convenor of the Australian Publishers Association's Tertiary Committee, and c.e.o of Pearson Australia, said the removal of both these rules would create market uncertainty and thus reduce investment in local product. "That will mean fewer titles and less risk-taking, meaning less local content and less innovation," he said. "And therefore more reliance on overseas, predominantly US, material."
McGraw Hill managing director and APA president Murray St Leger, also warned the recommendations would reduce the "output of Australian educational content" and be "detrimental to the educational publishing industry, but more importantly, could lead to poorer educational outcomes in all areas".