The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, Labor Ministers, the coalition parties, Independents and Greens have been targeted in a campaign launched by Printing Industries Association of Australia (Printing Industries) to head off the Productivity Commission recommendations to end territorial copyright.

Printing Industries has told Mr Rudd that the recommendations "fly in the face" of good economic management and are opposed by a myriad of organisations including book printers, publishers, authors, the trade union movement - and all State Premiers and Chief Ministers. (The state politicians issued a joint communiqué following the 29 May meeting of the Council for the Australian Federation (CAF) opposing any changes to the current regulations).

Printing Industries CEO Philip Andersen, has written to Mr Rudd and politicians on all sides of Parliament highlighting the absurdity of the recommendations and citing the negative experience in New Zealand, the only other English speaking country to have ended territorial copyright.

"The evidence since 1998 shows that book prices did not fall. Instead fewer New Zealand books are being published relative to the trend in other English-speaking countries and publishers have rolled back their infrastructure," Mr Andersen said.

"This failed experiment had such a detrimental impact on the New Zealand book industry that the representative bodies of both authors and publishers in New Zealand forwarded submissions to the Productivity Commission review urging the maintenance in Australia of the existing parallel import arrangements."

Mr Andersen said the Productivity Commission had itself acknowledged that the copyright changes introduced in 1991, and specifically the introduction of the 30-day rule, had helped boost demand for local printing.

He told Mr Rudd that the Australian book printing industry had invested significantly in equipment, facilities and training since that time and had done much to improve its environmental responsiveness – a major differentiating factor between Australian and overseas manufacturers.

"If the Productivity Commission recommendations are implemented it will represent a mindless destruction of a thriving, creative industry without a skerrick of evidence of any offsetting national benefits and must be completely rejected by your Government," Mr Andersen said.

"Unfortunately the Commission’s recommendations not only show its total disconnection from the real world but also a disconnect from its own inquiry process. The overwhelming majority of submissions forwarded to the inquiry by authors, publishers, book printers and their representative bodies as well as the trade union movement, supported the retention of the existing arrangements."

Mr Andersen said he believed that the Productivity Commission was probably the wrong government agency to be entrusted with such a review, its sixth book industry review since 1989.

"Former Victorian Premier Steve Bracks undertook the recent car industry review because the Government didn’t trust the Commission. A similarly independent person should have been appointed for the book industry review too.

"The Commission has again demonstrated that it is captive to a narrow economic ideology and unable to accept industry reality or broader and sensible alternative ideologies," he said.

Mr Andersen said Printing Industries had asked Mr Rudd for a meeting with senior Ministers and himself to discuss the matter in detail.