THE HON MARK DREYFUS QC MP
SHADOW ATTORNEY-GENERAL
SHADOW MINISTER FOR NATIONAL SECURITY
MEMBER FOR ISAACS
SENATOR CAROL BROWN
SHADOW MINISTER FOR DISABILITY AND CARERS
SENATOR FOR TASMANIA
LABOR WELCOMES IMPLEMENTATION OF MARRAKESH TREATY
It has been a long time coming, but today the government has finally acted to implement the Marrakesh Treaty an international agreement which improves access to thousands of printed works for people with disability under Copyright Law.
The Marrakesh Treaty to Facilitate Access to Published Works to Visually Impaired Persons and Persons with Print Disabilities was signed by the Labor Government in 2013. It allows for printed works to be translated into accessible formats, such as braille, without breaching Copyright Law.
Previously, blind and visually impaired people in Australia had been denied access to many books and other works that were readily available in accessible forms in other countries. Today, with the passage of the Copyright Amendment (Disability Access and Other Measures) Bill through the Senate, this so-called book famine has finally ended.
Labor has pressured the government since 2013 to get on and implement the treaty, in order to end the uncertainty in the disability sector. It has taken the government an inexplicable length of time four years to get this done. But we are glad it has.
THURSDAY, 15 JUNE 2017
