House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2023-06-15 Daily Xml

Contents

Public Library Funding

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): My question is to the Minister for Arts. Has the minister received any representations in relation to funding challenges for our public libraries network and, if so, who from and what has been her response?

The Hon. A. MICHAELS (Enfield—Minister for Small and Family Business, Minister for Consumer and Business Affairs, Minister for Arts) (14:35): I thank the shadow minister for the question. I know there is a public campaign being run by the Local Government Association that I have seen comments in the media on and I have been on radio discussing those.

Public libraries funding was an agreement reached with the former Marshall Liberal government in 2021 for a four-year term and we are committing to sticking with that agreement, which is the agreement the LGA signed up on, which is the agreement that the former Marshall Liberal government was happy with.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. A. MICHAELS: Further to that, public libraries funding is about 20 per cent coming out of the State Library and about 80 per cent from the Local Government Association, so any issues around cost pressures I'm sure will be dealt with by the Local Government Association appropriately.