The release by the Productivity Commission of their recommendation to remove protections for the Australian domestic publishing market and authors, because they say this will benefit consumers, needs far greater examination.

I’ve heard this argument before and it is generally pursued by the vested interests who in the long term seek to exploit the market by bringing about market centralisation under their control.

This may be just another example where the rhetoric of vested interest parts company with the facts that follow.

Deregulation of the wheat desk was supposed to be of great benefit to farmers. The reality is it was a disaster and farmers are now being paid hundreds of dollars per tonne less than they were before deregulation.

The repeal of the sites and franchise act limiting major oil companies to five percent of sites was supposed to be of great benefit to consumers; however I doubt that anyone thinks, in hindsight, this was a great move. It forced independents out of the market and gave greater powers to those in the market who already had too much.

The centralisation of retail has brought our nation the highest food inflation in the western world yet the price at the farm gate has remained static or in some instances has gone down.  It is these same retailers who want changes to the domestic publishing market.

 We now have the major retailers being the biggest sellers of fuel, food, cigarettes, alcohol and benefactors of gaming machine revenue. They control our stomachs, rule our vices and now they are very interested in what we read as we continue live in the contented glow of their so called benevolence.

There is strong question about the authenticity of the Australian culture being protected and one can only take the recommendations from those who count, the authors, who strongly believe the outcome of this legislative change will be detrimental to the continuing capacity of Australia to define itself by its own literary palette. These are the questions that should be properly ventilated by a Senate inquiry and certainly prior to the passage of any legislation.

I have to be honest in my time in politics I’ve seen some set ups and this is starting to stink of one.