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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (26 June) . . Page.. 2177 ..

Mr De Domenico: We all knew that you could not count. Now you cannot read either. You can count to three only when you have five.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Mr Whitecross has the floor.

MR WHITECROSS: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Apparently, it is terrible to have two libraries open at the same time when we could save money by having only one library open. That is exactly what this report recommends, so Mr De Domenico is completely wrong in suggesting anything else. Let me give a couple of examples. In relation to Tuggeranong - Mr De Domenico is notorious for not taking much interest in levels of service in Tuggeranong, his electorate - following this principle, the report recommends that the Erindale library be closed on Saturdays because you can always go to Tuggeranong library. We have to close Erindale library on Saturdays because you can go to Tuggeranong. The report recommends that Civic library close on Friday nights and Saturdays because you can always go to Dickson. Far from it being the case, as Mr De Domenico sought to suggest a moment ago in his interjection, that the report does not do anything of the sort, that is precisely what it does. It recommends a reduction in opening hours because there is a library somewhere else in town you could go to. That is precisely what it does.

When this report was released, the Government tried to do a monumental snow job. They talked about how great the future was going to be because we were going to have libraries open on Sundays. They talked about spending extra money on computer technology. That is all good stuff. No-one is complaining about that. The reality is that what Mr De Domenico did not say was that for the sake of opening Woden library and Belconnen library, which are the only two libraries we are talking about, for four hours on Sunday we are going to close a string of libraries on Saturdays. We are going to reduce the opening hours during the day and we are going to cut back on evening hours.

Let us just run through the recommendations. It is recommended that Griffith library close one extra day per week and one extra night per week and open between noon and 8.00 pm. That is what Mr De Domenico is giving serious consideration to. It is recommended that Kippax library have no evening openings and open at 11 o'clock Tuesday to Friday. I will come back to Kippax library, because there is more on Kippax. It is recommended that Dickson library close one extra day per week and one extra evening per week. Dickson library, which Mr De Domenico's study suggests should close one extra day per week and one extra evening per week, has absolutely fantastic performance figures. It is right up near the top of the league table on loans per capita and second to Civic on visits. It has the highest turnover rate. The customers obviously like it. The customers obviously want to go there, but what do we have threatened in the report? It says that Dickson should close one extra day per week and one extra evening per week. It recommends that Civic library close Friday night and Saturday. Civic library also has fantastic performance figures quoted in the report. Tuggeranong library is going to improve the service, using Mr De Domenico's expression, by opening at 12 o'clock instead of 10 o'clock and closing one extra day per week. Erindale library is going to open at 12 o'clock instead of 10 o'clock and close one extra day per week and close on Saturday. These are the kinds of recommendations that Mr De Domenico has in front of him. I have raised this matter of public importance because I believe and Labor believes that this - - -

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