Federal Opposition leader Bill Shorten is trying to write himself into the hearts and minds of the nation's publishing industry, arguing against any attempt to water down restrictions on cheap book imports.

The Government is considering scrapping protectionist parallel import restrictions (PIR) that stop books published overseas being brought into Australia.

The Harper review into competition policy recommended the changes, and the Productivity Commission has handed its final report to the Government about Australia's intellectual property regime.

A draft of that report was released in April, and echoed the findings of Professor Ian Harper, who also recommended changes to the copyright protections offered to authors.

It is a proposal that has inflamed tensions among Australian writers, who argue their livelihoods are at stake.

Mr Shorten said the industry employed around 20,000 people across the country, which ties in with his current focus on protecting Australian jobs.

"Even more importantly, if I can say this, the Australian publishing industry makes sure that the Australian story gets told. From the suburbs of Melbourne and Brisbane, through to the Coorong to the deserts, through to the surf of WA," Mr Shorten said.

Opposition Leader Bill Shorten is eager to assist Australian writers in getting published. ( ABC News: Adam Kennedy )

"This Christmas, Australians will be reading Australian stories, printed in Australia, by Australians telling the Australian stories.

"Labor is asking Malcolm Turnbull and the Coalition Government to join with Australian jobs and to join with Australian storytelling and make sure that we keep Australian storytelling alive into the future."

Internationally acclaimed author Thomas Keneally said the nation risked being plunged back into a creative dark age if the restrictions were lifted.

"When I was a young writer, published in 1964 for the first time, there was little visible book and publishing infrastructure in this country," Keneally said

"It was easy to get publicity for your book because you were probably the first person in two years to have published one.

"A book by an Australian was a rare phenomenon, like the sighting of the Min Min lights or the appearance of a bicycling goanna."

It was a sentiment echoed by award-winning author Anna Funder.

"The impetus behind this proposal to get rid of PIRs, and also the more outrageous one about ending the actual copyright of Australian creators, comes from an ideology which values the free movement of money around the globe over all other freedoms," she said.

"In this ideology, the free movement of money would trump the freedom of Australians to tell our own stories and to publish them in our own publishing houses and to print them in our own printers.

"The only beneficiaries to the proposed changes to the parallel imports would have been overseas publishers."

The Coalition would need the support of the Greens or crossbench senators to pass any changes.

Liberal MP Tim Wilson argued against the Labor push today, saying that copyright is an international standard.

"Rights holders still get paid royalties," he tweeted.

"PIRs just protect publishing companies."