Josh Wilson (Fremantle, Australian Labor Party, Assistant Minister for Climate Change and Energy) Share this | Hansard source

I'm really glad to be able to make some remarks in support of the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Bill 2026 and the Public and Educational Lending Rights (Better Income for Authors) Consequential Amendments and Transitional Provisions Bill 2026. It's a significant consolidation of the arrangements that have been in place since the Whitlam government, quite rightly, decided that that, as a matter of fairness, authors should get the benefit from the proliferation of their works through libraries and educational institutions.

I support what this government has done in extending that to cover digital formats, which, as the member for Bonner rightly said, is how many Australians now enjoy Australian stories and Australian literature. I also support, and am glad for this opportunity to highlight, the significance of the contribution that Australian authors, writers, storytellers and picture-book illustrators make to our broad wellbeing and the sustainment of our distinctively Australian identity.

Making sure that authors and writers get paid fairly for the work that they do is a matter of justice for those people as workers and, frankly, as Australian manufacturers. We talk about a future made in Australia. In this country, there are very few more important things that we make than cultural products. When we consider books and stories—when we consider films, music, works of theatre, dance and all of the many expressions of creativity and cultural production—they are something essential to life in Australia. If you think about things that are made in Australia and manufacturing in Australia, they really should be at the very top of the priority tree.

While we want to see more and more things made in Australia, as a matter of economic diversification, economic self-sufficiency, supply chain sovereignty and all of those things, the reality is that it probably doesn't matter a great deal in the lived experience of Australians, whether, say, a beverage was manufactured in Australia or came in from overseas. I like to drink Australian-made beverages, but, at the end of the day, if someone gives you a glass and it's got lemonade in it, the experiential difference between lemonade that may have been made here and lemonade that may have been imported is not all that great.

When it comes to cultural products, there is a vast difference. It is not the same to say that, if all the novels we read in this country were written somewhere else, there would be no difference to the quality of Australian life. It is not true to say that, if all the music we listen to, all the theatre we see and all the films we enjoy were made somewhere else, there would be no experiential difference, no difference to our identity and no difference to our capacity to understand ourselves, to consider our circumstances or to imagine our best future. It's not true to say that that wouldn't be massively affected for the worse if we weren't able—particularly as young Australians—to access the stories, songs, theatrical performances and dance that have origins here, in our experience and in our landscape. This is especially relevant, of course, for those works that that touch on, draw upon, engage with or seek to interrogate and resolve the most interesting and complex parts of our identity and our history, starting with our First Nations cultural heritage—our most precious heritage as the longest continuous civilisation on earth.

Those things are sustained by arts and creativity, cultural production and all the people who contribute to that in Australia. It is essential. It is vital. We know that the health of that broad creative ecosystem is at risk from all of the things that can impact on the people who are drawn vocationally to make that contribution. And some of them are those global market forces. There are times when it would be easier and cheaper if what we watched on our screens had been made somewhere else, but we cannot accept that. We cannot allow that to occur. One of the ways that we make sure Australian storytelling, Australian voices, Australian experiences and Australian language are kept at the core of our national experience is by making sure that the people who devote themselves, their skill and their expertise to that enterprise are properly supported. And this is just one small part of it. I'm not here to say today that public lending rights make the distinctive difference. There's a whole range of things, and we need to keep focusing on them. I know that Minister Burke and the Special Envoy for the Arts, the member for Macquarie, who's just entered the Federation Chamber, are at work on that all day, every day.

For me, writing and storytelling and books are special for a couple of reasons. When I was young, it was my ambition to make a life as a writer. When people say, 'Well, how did you ultimately come to be involved in representative work?' I say that it was by first being a failed novelist. I worked as a travel writer; I wrote and published short fiction. I did a range of things. I don't regret any of the many wonderful and sometimes difficult and frustrating hours that I spent on those novel manuscripts, even though, ultimately, they weren't good enough to enter the public realm or end up on the shelves of a library. From my own personal experience, I know that the contribution that writers and authors make is massive. I've had some experience in seeking to be a contributor to that—unsuccessfully.

I've obviously had much more extensive experience as a reader. I know that there are—well, I would say virtually every Australian will have, through reading, some Australian stories as part of the formation of themselves, as part of the way they have come to understand the things that are valuable to them and precious in their community, particularly stories that allow us to see ourselves and to understand ourselves better.

I really welcome what this bill is contributing. And I want to take the opportunity, while talking about the necessary support of Australian writing and Australian literature, to reflect on its significance in my community in Fremantle. Fremantle has been a place that has nurtured the creative arts in all its dimensions over a long period of time. That includes a number of significant writers and it includes a number of significant literary organisations. A couple of them have celebrated birthdays recently and I just want to touch upon them.

First and foremost, Fremantle Press just marked its 50th anniversary. It has been one of the most critical arts and culture organisations in Western Australia. And, as a matter of full disclosure, my wife, Georgia, works at Fremantle Press as the fiction and non-fiction publisher. I think the work she does is amazing. One of the things I love is when, in our house, I'm occasionally allowed into her study and I get to see the shelves of books that she's had a hand in seeing into print. That's an incredible legacy. I sometimes wonder about the impact I might be having on the world when I see all of the really amazing stories, fiction and non-fiction, that Georgia has supported authors to see become part of our experience in Australia. It reminds me that the work that cultural creators do in this country is seriously undervalued. What Fremantle Press has done—some of the hardest work in the publishing world is dedicated to identifying and seeing stories into print, particularly unpublished Western Australian voices. That is a challenge in a great continent like ours, because some jurisdictions that are outside the Melbourne-Sydney-Canberra triangle can face all of the barriers and the disadvantages that come from that smaller scale and that distance. Having a press like Fremantle Press in WA helps bring forward, for all our benefit, writers like Elizabeth Jolley, AB Facey, Sally Morgan, Kim Scott, Joan London, Dave Warner, David Whish-Wilson, Dianne Wolfer and many, many others.

I say happy birthday to Fremantle Press and recognise the incredible work that they've done over 50 years and that I know will continue for the next half-century and beyond. I'm glad that Creative Australia's Plus1 program was able to support Fremantle Press in finding their new headquarters in the old SEC Substation down in Fremantle—what will be their 'forever home'. As they reach the half-century, being able to occupy new headquarters, after having moved various times over the years, is a great step in securing a foundation for Western Australian writing for a considerable period of time.

I also want to acknowledge the 10th birthday of the Paper Bird bookshop. It's Perth's only specialist children's bookshop, and it also functions as a dedicated arts and culture centre for young people. It was created 10 years ago down in Fremantle, and it's a beautiful place. It's a place that, for lots and lots of young people and their parents—and for not-so-young people—is a kind of treasure island of children's and young adults' literature and of the work by illustrators that is often part of that. That includes a lot of books that Fremantle Press has been involved in that draw upon our incredibly rich First Nations history—both the subject matter of those stories and the language—like Noongar First Words and those kinds of publications, which I wish I had had the benefit of reading when I read books at primary school but which kids now do get to enjoy. That's something we should recognise.

I'll conclude by saying that we need to maintain our focus on the importance of cultural production—that kind of future made in Australia. We need to keep recognising that, however our system works, it doesn't properly reward or support those kinds of producers. That's just the way it is. The average income of an Australian writer is just a bit more than $18,000; it doesn't even get over the tax-free threshold. The public lending rights arrangements do send significant and rightful support to the producers of works. If you look at that $28 million across 17,000 payments, it's probably $1,700 per author, on average. It's an important contribution. They ought to have it as a matter of right.

But we should nevertheless recognise that, if you are a writer, a musician, a playwright, a painter, a visual artist or a person who's creating original choreography, you are struggling. You make a choice out of that vocational commitment. What goes with that choice, inevitably, is economic uncertainty. For many, many Australian artists, the reality is that, while they pursue their art and while they make an essential contribution to our wellbeing, they almost start from a position of having to ask, 'What's going to be the way that I earn a living so that I can also write these incredible novels and produce these amazing albums, these great films and so on?' We need to say to ourselves, 'That's not right.' We should continue to try to be creative in finding ways to make sure that those creators and those workers get a fair go. I say this cautiously, but it's good that you can be a run-of-the-mill anything—a run-of-the-mill bricklayer, a run-of-the-mill dentist, a run-of-the-mill politician—and be able to earn a fair living. You could be an absolutely first-rate author, first-rate musician or first-rate playwright, and you will struggle. There are so few Australian artists who can really go into their work as professionals and have the expectation of that security. That's something we should keep trying to fix.

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