The Fair Use Review Issues Paper has been issued by the Attorney-General's department.

Finally!

Kim Weatherall (Associate Director of the Intellectual Property Research Institute of Australia) has written up a pretty good overview of the paper and her initial thoughts over at her blog. e.g.

First, the government is not just asking the ‘small questions’. The first thing that strikes you about this Issues Paper is that they are really not shying away from being told any grievances you have about copyright exceptions as they currently exist in Australian law. Unlike some other recent inquiries on copyright (cough cough Digital Agenda Review cough cough), this is not an Issues Paper that has confined ‘terms of reference’.

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What is not clear from that statement is whether they want to hear anything now. It SEEMS to suggest they don't. But it's not entirely clear.

This will be a developing discussion. But it does seem to me that the Issues Paper leaves things very wide open. When people say 'go forth and submitify' - they really mean it. If you have a gripe in this space, now is the time to raise it. Particularly if you can back it up with proof.