1,, USTRALIA
PRIME MINISTER PRESS STATEMENT NO. 301
August 1974
PUBLIC LENDING RIGHT FOR AUSTRALIAN AUTHORS AND
PUBLI SHERS
The Prime Minister, Mr. Whitlam, today announced the
appointment of the Australian Authors' Fund Committee which will
implement the Public Lending Right for Australian authors and
publishers. Mr. Whitlam said that the appointment of the Committee
followed the acceptance by the Government in principle of the
report of the Committee of Inquiry into Public Lending Rights
established by the Literature Board of the Australian Council for
the Arts. The Public Lending Right was a long overdue recognition
of the service rendered to the community by authors and publishers.
The Scandinavian countries had pioneered the public lending right
and Australia and New Zealand were the first two English-speaking
countries to implement it.
Mr. Whitlam said the Public Lending Right was an
important part of the Government's program of assistance to the
arts. It would provide a valuable income supplement for writers,
many of whose incomes were subject to extreme fluctuations, and
an encouragement to publishers.
The Chairman of the A. A. F. Committee will be Richard Hall,
a member of the Literature Board, who had served on the Committee
of Inquiry. Mr. Hall is an adviser to the Minister for Manufacturing
Industry, Mr. Enderby. The position is part-time. / 2
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Other members of the Committee are:-
Mr. David Martin
Mr. Colin Simpson
Mr. Frank Thompson
Mr. Barrett Reid Novelist, of Beechworth, Victoria.
Nominee of the Literature Board.
Author, of Gordon, New South Wales.
Representing the interests of
writers.
Manager of Queensland University
Press, Brisbane, Qld.
Representing the interests of
publishers.
State Library of Victoria, of St.
Andrews, Victoria.
Representing the interests of
librarians.
Representatives from the Attorney-General's Department and
Treasury will be appointed to the Committee.
Funds have been appropriated to provide for retrospective
payments from 1 April this year. For the first 15 months
of the scheme payments would be made on the basis of a pilot
sample of municipal and subscription libraries throughout
Australia. Mr. Whitlam said he wished to pay particular tribute to the
work of Professor Geoffrey Blainey who had chaired the
Committee of Inquiry.
CANBERRA, A. C. T.