Janelle Saffin (Page, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I want to speak up for libraries, having been asked by local constituents to do so. Libraries are a rich community resource for learning, for communications and for information. We all love to love libraries, but we often do little to promote and defend them. I know in times of high public demand for basic services like health, education and roads it is easy to overlook libraries and give less funding in such areas.

Supporters of a local regional library in my area recently asked the public to get behind a campaign to secure extra funding to the tune of about $1 million they say is a shortfall for the regional library based in Lismore. The Country Public Libraries Association of New South Wales and public libraries in New South Wales have been asking for an increase in the overall percentage of state money provided to local libraries. I have supported them and, in doing so, did the research and found the following. The federal government’s contribution to libraries is, correctly, primarily concentrated on national libraries and university libraries. State funding is to state libraries and also to local libraries but at about one-third of the local government contribution. Local government makes a significant contribution and most libraries would be struggling if not for local government. That is a very big burden for local government to bear and one that it needs some assistance with.

The expenditure figures on public libraries shows that in New South Wales there was an increase from $201 million in 2001-02 to $256 million in 2005-06. Expenditure per capita went from $30.31 to $37.36. The expenditure figure has been going up, but in real terms the state contribution has actually fallen from 23.6 per cent in 1980 to 7.8 per cent in 2004-05. So, even though the funding has increased over three times from 1980, it has been supplemented by local government and has not kept up with inflation, so due to the cost of living pressures—the inflationary pressures that we are all experiencing—it has had an impact on the libraries. Although in 2006-07 the allocation was only $185,000 less than the previous year, it appears that the regional library in Lismore in my area is suffering a shortfall of about $1 million. In conclusion, I have never really understood why libraries come under the sport and recreation portfolio. To me it is something that should be under education given the nature of libraries. (Time expired)