A proposal to remove the requirement that attribution to a printer be published on electoral material is now at a standstill after the senator spearheading the amendment, Bob Day resigned from Parliament.

During a trip to Canberra last week PIAA CEO Andrew Macaulay and former politician Mary Jo Fisher met with the independent senator for South Australia (Family First) where it was concluded Day would put forward a Private Member’s Bill to amend the Electoral Act.

The law as it currently stands reads, “A person shall not print, publish or distribute or cause, permit or authorise to be printed, published or distributed, an electoral advertisement, handbill, pamphlet, poster or notice unless the name and place of business of the printer appears at the end thereof.”

Macaulay says he was prompted to explore removing the ‘printed by’ logo on political party electoral material due to several complaints by printers producing the work of harassment from members of the public.

However the proposed changes have sparked debate amongst the industry on whether they are necessary or helpful. 

One electoral printer told Australian Printer the ‘printed by’ logo encourages political parties to support locally owned printers.

“The ‘printed by xyz’ inclusion is a positive as it promotes a lot of regional and rural printers which gives them more work,” the source says.

“If you remove the transparency and do not include information on where the material is printed, the work will likely go overseas and no one will ever know about it.”  

The source says protecting printers from harassment is not a valid reason for the PIAA to pursue the change, “It is just part of the territory, printers that are worried about phone calls will also not receive the promotion if you do away with the attribution.” 

David Downie, director of Melbourne's Kosdown Printing, which has been printing electoral material for the past 25 years has labelled the move 'ludacris'.

"I do not understand why anyone would want to remove the name if it is promoting the printer," Downie says. "I would be happy to support going against any changes."

Fisher says Day will no longer be working with the PIAA on the issue following his shock resignation from Parliament yesterday.

Day resigned due to the collapse of his building company Home Australia, which is now in liquidation leaving more than 200 homeowners in the lurch. 

“There are a number of other politicians who are interested in the issue, however Day was the one who volunteered to pursue it for us,” Fisher says.

“We will consult with members and there is no hurry but we need to consider if we want to do something about this.”

Fisher says the PIAA has received mixed feedback on the issue but will seek a solution to satisfy the majority of the industry.   

“Even those who are critical of the change say things like, ‘printers have been experiencing this for over 20 years, why change it now’,” Fisher explains.

“20 years of putting up with harassment does not make it right. We need to find a solution to make it difficult for that sort of intimidation occur while still encouraging our politicians to shop local.”

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