Senator BROWN (11:12 PM) —The Greens are opposed to the Copyright Amendment Bill (No. 2) 1997 . I am not going to elaborate greatly on the words of the speaker before me or the speaker after me. Being sandwiched between Senator Stott Despoja and Senator Lundy frees me up to be a little bit self-indulgent rather than explanatory. Members opposite will agree that the argument that Senator Stott Despoja has put was extremely enlightening, and I think, from the looks on faces opposite, it may have changed a few minds. I have no doubt that it will be followed by an equally enlightening dissertation from Senator Lundy.

I, like Senator Stott Despoja, was very open minded about this legislation when it hit the decks here last year. We knew it was complex and we knew that it was not the first round. I decided to keep a completely open mind about it, recognising that at the two ends of the debate were, firstly, the carrot of a drop in prices for CDs if the legislation went through, and, secondly, the stick belting the Australian music industry around the head if the legislation went through. It was with those two things in mind that we set out to find out what to do.

The Australian Consumers Association was off the mark very quickly. I find few people more impressive in lobbying than Mara Bun and her associates. They do a phenomenal job for consumers right around this country. They did produce a very compelling case for a fall in prices of CDs were this legislation to get through.

Politics being a matter of the short term, something has happened since then to knock some of the stuffing out of that argument—that is, the fall in the Australian dollar. This means that the comparative gain they were able to put to us in terms of prices if this legislation went through has been somewhat whittled away in the meantime. I recognise that if the dollar goes back up, and if the so-called floodgates are opened and imports are allowed into the country, so the gain to consumers may well increase, too.

On the other hand the very compelling arguments from the music industry—including my good and long-term friend Peter Garrett, but many others, both performers and creators, not to speak of some small retailers as well—that this legislation would have a devastating effect on the home-grown industry had to be taken into account. I was extraordinarily impressed by the genuineness of Mr Ross Gengos, who has Abels Music here in the ACT, and the arguments he put forward against this legislation. They were genuine, they were very compelling and they gave me reassurance that the right thing to do was to block this legislation.

Here was a retailer who felt that the government had got it wrong. Here was a retailer, moreover a home-grown business which puts its money back into the local market, that was not frightened by the argument that to oppose this legislation was simply to support the multinationals. From Peter Garrett—if I can truncate his argument—came the news that performers like him, or bands like Midnight Oil, may get up to $1.70 in royalties per CD under the current circumstances. In other countries it is different. If the CDs were to be produced in Malaysia or Singapore or, more particularly, the Philippines, the return to the Australian performer might be as low as 30c, or even lower. Now that is a dramatic difference.

If we have the imported CDs competing with the Australian CDs successfully, obviously what we are faced with is that the local performers and the creators behind them are going to lose out dramatically. Add to that the concern about piracy and the potential for large numbers of CDs to come into the country, with no stipend at all going to the performers who create the music in this country—none at all. You can see why the home-grown music industry is very worried indeed.

The argument about multinationals was one that worried me quite a bit, because I am no defender of multinationals. There are too many woodchipping corporations ripping the heartland out of the world heritage forests of Tasmania—and one in particular, North, is about to push into the Jabiluka valley with a uranium mine in the north of this country—for me to want to get very close to corporations with those sorts of scruples. However, we cannot tar them all with the one brush. But when Senator Alston, the minister in charge of this legislation, started to criticise me for lining up on the side of the multinationals, I recognised that the argument might have been very hollow indeed.

We had to try to find somewhere in the world where this issue might already have been run. Norway was the case in point. In between 1963 and 1993, Norway dropped the protection of the local industry. It was found that the local industry did get knocked about, but that the prices did not necessarily fall. So in 1993 Norway reintroduced the prohibition on the easy import of music from elsewhere other than from the European Union.

The proof of the pudding there is that the parliament in Norway, a country with similar circumstances to our own, voted just a couple of months ago to defend the parallel importing arrangements they have in that country and not to change them. The experience they had had in the past did create problems for the industry.

Senator Kemp —You're wrong, Bob.

Senator BROWN —I am sure the minister, who did not know before but has just checked with his advisers, is the one who is wrong, not me.

Senator Kemp —No, you are inventing arguments to support multinationals. You are wrong, just wrong.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT (Senator Hogg) —Order!

Senator BROWN —In Norway it was the equivalent arch-conservative party that recently made a move on the home-grown music industry. It is extraordinary, isn't it? The problem is that they failed, and they failed miserably in the parliament. It went down by a vote of 66 to 29. I think the margin is not going to be as big here tonight, but I hope it goes the same way because the same arguments do pertain.

Senator Kemp —You are supporting the multinationals in the guise of supporting the consumers.

Senator BROWN —Let me tell you the thing that impressed me most in all of this: it was the approach to Senator Alston's office last year by my office, and I have no doubt other people—

Senator Kemp —Support the bill and the consumers association.

The ACTING DEPUTY PRESIDENT —Order!

Senator BROWN —I would not make a CD of it, Mr Acting Deputy President, but I am quite happy if he keeps going. In the approach we made to Senator Alston's office we said, `We think we are listening to the arguments of the local music industry. We'd like the consumers to have the potential for lower prices, but you come up with a package that is going to help the music industry in this country—that really is going to help them. Don't come up with something like those multinationals are talking about, flagged when the Keating government tried this legislation, because they welshed on that. Come up with something that we can see has got teeth in it and is really going to protect the local industry.'

But the government did not; Senator Alston's office has still to come out with such a package. You would have thought that if the government really wanted to win this debate they would have come out with a package that was going to stimulate the Australian music industry which could have, amongst other things, raised the mandatory content of Australian made music going out on the airwaves from radio around this country. But, of course, they did not.

I do not know how Senator Alston runs his office. Maybe he is too busy beating the ABC around the head and trying to scare people about the ABC. I do not know why the office failed to come up with a package. I thought to myself: if Senator Alston, with all the backing of government, really wants this, the government could come up with a package that is going to reassure people like me about the music industry. They did not really try. They came around and asked, `Have you got some ideas, Senator Brown?' and I said, `Well, I have, but I really do not know the industry well enough. You come up with the package that is going to convince us.' But it did not arrive. I can honestly say that that was the clincher. I suspect that Senator Alston simply came up with the economic rationalist doctrine: get rid of any protection, throw it open to the market and, at the same time, pull the rug from under the home-grown industry.

Senator Kemp —But you are the ones supporting the multinationals.

Senator BROWN —The senator opposite says, `You are supporting the multinationals.' Who is going to make the profits from imported CDs if we open the floodgates? The answer is the multinationals—the ones who operate branches elsewhere as well as those they operate here in Australia. That argument does not hold water.

I want to thank everybody who lobbied me on this. It has been a very difficult matter. From the Australian Consumers Association through to the people in the industry—in all its diversity—the lobbying has been clear and concise. It has been very heartfelt at times, but it was done in good spirit, and it has left me with the very clear idea at the end of the day that I am making the right decision here.

I also want to comment on my home newspaper, the Mercury. A couple of weeks ago, it printed a full-page article against my stand on this issue. A number of letters were sent to the Mercury responding to that article. None of them have been printed. If that were to become the even-handedness with which debates in this country are run, then none of us would be adequately informed or would get a fair go when trying to determine the facts on which to make decisions on important issues like this. As it is, I feel good about backing the Australian industry. I feel good about having made a tough decision which is going to ensure that music and the creative arts—the things that help to make Australia different and that give us pride in this coun try—will be defended. I oppose this legislation and hope that other members of the chamber who may not have made up their minds will go the same way.

Finally, I have discovered that Australian consumers do not mind paying a dollar or two extra to support their industry. They really do not. They can think beyond the dollar being the only measure that is important to this country. It is a pity that Senator Alston and the government were not a little closer to these consumers. They would find out that there are other values in this country besides an open market and the lowest dollar being the determinant of everything that is good, true or valuable for Australians.