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australia

History of PLR

a) Background

For nearly 100 years, the Australian Government has been providing financial support to authors. The Commonwealth Literary Fund, established in 1908, began as a benevolent fund for ill, aged or impoverished authors and their families. Over the next thirty years its budget and scope were expanded to include the award of annual fellowships and grants to writers, along with support for publishers and literary journals. Current grant support is provided primarily through the Australia Council.

Since 1974, however, the Australian Government has also made payments to Australian creators (including authors, compilers, translators, editors and illustrators) and publishers through the Public Lending Right scheme, which provides some recompense for the free availability of their books in public libraries. This scheme was given legislative support with the introduction of the Public Lending Right Act 1985, and a PLR Committee was formally established when this legislation came into effect two years later.

Payments to authors were again extended in 1999 with introduction of the Educational Lending Right (ELR) scheme, which provides recompense to creators and publishers for work lent by educational libraries. Initially funded for a four year-year period as part of the Australian Government’s $240 million Book Industry Assistance Plan, its funding has been renewed.

Another policy initiative which was established as part of the Book Industry Assistance Plan is the annual Books Alive program. Books Alive is a month long national marketing campaign, including television and press advertising, which runs in July/August each year. The goal of the program is the promotion of books and reading to the general public, children and young people, including books by Australian writers. It enjoys considerable support from the book-selling and publishing sectors as well authors. The books Alive program is managed for the Government by the Australia Council.

b) Policy and Legislation

The first stated objective of the Public Lending Right Act 1985 is primarily economic in nature, as mentioned above: “to make payments to Australian creators of books, and to publishers of books in Australia, in recognition of their loss of income from their books being available for loan from, or for use in, public lending libraries in Australia.”

The second objective, however, situates this legislation in a border cultural context, “to support the enrichment of Australian culture by encouraging Australian persons to create books by encouraging publishers to publish books in Australia.”

Both the PLR and ELR schemes reflect the extent to which Australian books add to, interpret and evaluate Australian culture. By supporting the material well-being if creators and publishers, the Australian Government aims to ensure that this valuable contribution continues.

c) Statistics

In order to be eligible for payment under the PLR and ELR schemes, creators must be citizens or permanent residents of Australia. Eligible publishers may include publishers whose business consist wholly or substantially of the publication of books and who regularly publish in Australia, sell-publishing creators, and non-profit organisations that publish to further their aims and objectives. In both schemes, payments to publishers are made at a rate of 25% of that paid to creators.

PLR payments to eligible creators and publishers are determined by the number of copies of their books estimated to be held in public lending libraries in Australia. This information is extracted from an annual survey of the books held in a sample of public lending libraries selected by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. If the survey results indicate that 50 or more copies of an eligible book are held in public libraries across Australia, a payment may be made.

The 2005-06 rate of payment per copy of each eligible book was AU$1.43 (€0.86) for creators and 35.75 cents (€0.22) for publishers. Payments of approximately AU$7m (€4.2m) were made to creators and publishers for this period, which was distributed to 8923 claimants of whom 8570 were creators (4034 females and 4536 males) and 353 were publishers. As payments are indexed to national wage costs, this was an increase on 2004-05, when payments of approximately AU$6.8m were made at $1.40 per book for creators and 35 cents per book for publishers.

ELR payments are made from a fixed pool of allocated funding. Creators and publishers are eligible for payment if a survey of secondary and tertiary educational lending libraries across Australia indicates that 50 or more copies are held in such institutions. Unlike PLR’s flat rate per book, the level of payment to each claimant is calculated using a tiered system, the details of which are determined yearly.

The Australian Government has made AU$44m (€26.6m) available to ELR for the years 2004-05 to 2007-08, and the payments made for 2005-06, which totaled AU$10.4m (€6.3m), were a slight increase on the previous year’s figure. The number of eligible claimants rose, however, from 8995 to 9778, of whom 9423 were creators (4623 females and 4800 males) and 355 were publishers.

Administration of PLR (and ELR)

a) Structure

As prescribed by the Public Lending Right Act 1985, the Australian Minister for the Arts and Sport appoints a PLR Committee, the functions of which are to determine eligibility, approve payments, and advise the Minister on matters relating to the scheme. This committee consists of a Chairperson, two representatives of Australian creators, a representative of publishers of books by Australian creators, a representative of libraries, an officer of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department and an officer of the National Library of Australia.

The PLR Committee considers both policy and administrative issues such as payment rates. It also maintains an interest in the impacts of technological change on books and publishing.

Although not directly responsible for the administration of ELR, the Committee has been invited by the Minister to advise him in this respect.

b) Process

The day-to-day operation of both PLR and ELR is undertaken by staff in the Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts.

3. Future of PLR

Since mid October 2006, PLR and ELR services have become available online. Registered PLR and/ or ELR claimants can now access the new Lending Rights Online service from the Department’s Lending Right Web page: www.arts.gov.au/arts/lending_rights. New claimants may also register online.

The online system is secure, reliable and has several important features to improve convenience for claimants. The service aims to make updating and accessing personal lending rights information easier and more convenient for claimants. It enables them to view lending rights payment history and update personal address and banking details. Claimants who are issued with a personal password can access the system any time from anywhere, using their claimant number and personal password.

These online services will be expanded in the future into payment advices and title claims. However, using the new online system is optional and the current lending rights phone, email, postal information and claim services will continue to be available.

(Updated February 2008)