Territorial copyright will still exist. Australian authors will continue to sell their rights to Australian publishers for Australian publication and in most cases those Australian publishers will sell most if not all of the copies of the book in question, sold in Australia. 

What will be different with parallel importation is the publishers will not have exclusivity to hide behind. Other non pirated versions of the book in question will be able to be imported and therefore the Australian publisher will have to conduct their business competitively. This will mean they will have to offer fairer terms to Australian booksellers and consumers. 

The US and UK are much bigger markets than the Australian market. Because of the size of those markets they are highly competitive. Because the smaller Australian market is protected by parallel importation restrictions it is anything but competitive.

We already live in a global market for books through online sales that are growing inexorably. With improvements to logistics and delivery costs and timing, online sales from bigger cheaper markets are eroding Australian booksellers businesses. It’s not that Australians don’t want to support local booksellers. It’s just that many cannot afford to do so because of the uncompetitive prices forced on booksellers by Australia’s protected publishing industry.

Australians should be able to take advantage of the scale available through the US and UK book markets even if only through the threat of parallel importing and the impact this would have upon Australian publishers. The New Zealand experience is that threat is taken seriously and results in a far more competitively focussed publishing sector, better service and lower prices from local publishers.