“This is nothing more than a cynical exercise in shifting the print costs away from corporations and onto consumers,” says Printing Industries Association of Australia National President, Peter Lane.

“Shareholders and the public will now lose their legal right to automatically receive important public information in its original printed format,” he says.

A number of institutional bodies, including the International Banks and Securities Association, lobbied the government to legislate to allow companies to make annual reports available on the internet and require hard copies to be sent only to investors who request them.

The Federal Government’s Taskforce on Reducing Regulatory Burdens on Business considered the recommendation. The government has says it will now ask Treasury to draft the appropriate enacting legislation.

Lane says the government should not have bowed to pressure from financial institutions. “The printing industry should have consulted first by the government before it agreed to frame such anti-industry legislation,” he says.

Initial estimates put the cost of this decision to the printing industry at a minimum of $100m. He says it comes at a time when more detailed annual reporting had become a cornerstone of improving corporate accountability, adds Lane.

“The rationale behind this is nullified if you then take away or restrict access to these reports,” he says.

“The cost saving argument doesn’t stand up. Print costs are continually falling through new efficiencies and technology improvements. The reports will still need to be prepared and designed, which are significant costs. Added to this is the cost of maintaining e-mail address databases, an increasing cost and an administrative nightmare.”

Lane says that in 2004 many major corporations backed a campaign encouraging shareholders to “opt out” of receiving printed reports in favour of the internet. The vast majority of people resisted this move even though it tried to mask itself under a cover of environmental responsibility.

“Now government is being solicited to overturn the public’s wish by forcing people to ‘opt in’. This is manipulating shareholders and the public. If you want to exercise your right to a printed report will you then be asked to pay to cover the print and postage costs?”

the new default option meant all shareholders and other interested people need to purchase a computer and a printer and internet access, set up an e-mail account, purchase ink for their printer and plenty of paper – all at their own cost, says Lane.

“Even small investors tracking their superannuation funds will need to have computer access to download their annual reports.

“This also leave such reports open to computer hackers who could alter data in reports housed on a website potentially influencing the financial decisions an investor may make. This risk doesn’t exist with printed reports.

“We encourage everyone who may be put into this situation to exercise their right to receive printed material at no additional cost. There is no telling where this will end if you let your right to receive a printed annual report be compromised.”

Lane says there was also an environmental cost because cartridge based inks used for domestic printing do not recycle and the used paper, together with empty ink cartridges and replacement computers, end up as toxic landfill creating an environmental hazard.

“Commercially printed products such as annual reports, magazines, leaflets, books and such are 100 cent recyclable and 100 per cent user friendly.”

He says printing a report for shareholders is a normal business on-cost and not an impediment to doing business like so many government charges and regulations are – which is where government should be focussing.

“People trust print and mistrust the anonymity and potential risk with internet communication. This is an attempt to force people into digital transactions that affect their personal communication preferences,” he says.

“Being able to put printed information, be it an annual report, prospectus or an account into a person’s hand is non-threatening, provides access equality and is often a measure of the credibility or legitimacy of the communication and the company who issued it.

“Importantly, it doesn’t cost the consumer anything directly.

“Printed material provides a level of accountability and responsibility to shareholders or customers that can be overlooked or misdirected through the vagaries of digital communication.

“The plethora of access, information and messages can create more confusion and distrust among consumers using these mediums without the positive and safe reinforcement of the print medium.

“It is very cynical to try to offload the cost of reading communications to investors or customer who, in most cases, will need to print out the information for personal consideration or reference.”

Some Facts – Paper is renewable and recyclable: Paper is one of the most renewable and recyclable resources and the most ecologically sustainable resource on the planet. Plantation forests provide the fibre for papermaking and help the environment by absorbing carbon and emitting oxygen. The paper manufacturing process itself does not emit carbon and therefore doesn’t contribute to the greenhouse emission problem. From an environmental point of view, it’s easier to recycle a few sheets of paper but this isn’t the case for computers and consumables such as inkjet cartridges.

Some environmental comparisons:
•It takes substantially more water to build a single PC than to manufacture one tonne of paper
•Internet usage in the US accounts for 8 per cent of total electricity consumption
•Computers left in standby mode consume on average $40 electricity each annually
•In Australia and many parts of the world coal is the primary source of electricity generation with detrimental impact on the environment (greenhouse gas emission), and
•Increasingly high numbers of computers going into landfill is posing an environmental hazard due to the lead and other toxic substance content.

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