Page 3844 - Week 12 - Thursday, 23 November 2006
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Other constituents who have contacted me have raised this issue that the pensioner raised—either on their own behalf or for family members and friends. Because of the lack of consultation, and the failure of the government to put the proposal before the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment, adequate consideration has not been given to these sorts of concerns or difficulties. The government will no doubt detail at length the improvements that have been made to the Civic library and I welcome these improvements. I enjoyed a tour of the site shortly before it opened and I attended another event last night. But, Mr Speaker, many people who have contacted me about the closure of the Griffith library have detailed how difficult it would be for them to travel to Civic or, alternatively, to Woden.
The minister told the rally of residents opposed to the closure that it was government policy to locate libraries in town centres. But a resident has written to me asking why the established centres of Manuka and Kingston do not count. Another has pointed out that, in contrast to the office workers who take advantage of libraries in town centres, the patronage of Griffith library is made up almost entirely of local residents.
In talking about the patronage, one of the great concerns I have is the well-regarded collection of Italian work—Italian literature—in that library. We wonder what the fate will be of that important collection which has been enjoyed by many of the first post World War II immigrants who settled in Canberra, particularly those who came here to work on the Snowy project and who have now established their families. Many of them have retired in the area and have enjoyed this particular service and quality of literature that reminds them of the land from which they came.
In urging people to use the Civic library, I doubt the government has considered the enormous difficulty and cost of parking in Civic. These are difficulties that may prove prohibitively expensive to residents who currently use Griffith library. The government has not given any consideration to these people in making its decision to close the library. They have not bothered to take the time to listen to people’s concerns, but instead have acted unilaterally and taken advantage of their majority to force the closure.
Mr Speaker, I support my colleague’s motion to defer the closure of Griffith library until appropriate consultation has taken place. As I have said, moving this motion is not something that I have taken lightly. Indeed, I have said to my colleagues on occasions that censuring a minister is not something one should do here on a frivolous basis or with a lack of due regard. But I cannot, as I said, sit back and watch a situation where I feel that a sizeable group within my community are having their interests trampled on, are being treated with absolute contempt, were not properly consulted and are thus being told, “We could not care less what you think and we will not even entertain the possibility of extensive discussion in this chamber where we are elected in the first instance to represent our constituents.” All other things proceed secondary to that, in my opinion.
The government should refer this to the Standing Committee on Planning and Environment. It would certainly give the people of the inner south a chance to have their concerns addressed. I commend this motion to the Assembly and I would hope that Mr Hargreaves might take stock of the approach he has employed to date. Whilst
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