Commonwealth act

Public Lending Right Act 1985

In ForceCTH

Jurisdiction

Commonwealth

Act Number

200 of 1985

Collection

act

Plain English Summary

4/10 complexity

What This Law Does

The Public Lending Right Act 1985 sets up a system where the Australian Government pays authors, illustrators, translators, editors, and publishers when their books sit on shelves in public libraries — because every library copy means people can borrow the book for free instead of buying it, cutting into the creator's income.

Who Gets Paid?

To qualify, you must be:

An Australian citizen (wherever you live in the world), OR
Someone who normally lives in Australia

Eligible people include:

Authors who wrote the book
Illustrators, translators, compilers, and editors
Publishers (of certain categories specified in the scheme)

Important: If a book has both Australian and non-Australian authors, only the Australian authors' contributions count — but the whole book is treated as if it were written solely by the Australian author(s).

How Does It Work?

A Minister approves a formal "scheme" (a detailed rulebook) that sets out exactly how payments are calculated and who qualifies
A government body called the Public Lending Right Committee processes claims and decides who gets paid and how much

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Current sections

Direct links to the current provisions in Public Lending Right Act 1985.

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Sourced from the Federal Register of Legislation (legislation.gov.au), CC BY 4.0.