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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-14 Daily Xml
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Riverton School Community Library

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (16:30): A couple of weeks ago, I attended a community meeting held in Riverton, which was called by a group of local residents who were aggrieved by a decision made by their local council, the Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council, to terminate an agreement between themselves and the state government in providing a community library through the library which is based at Riverton High School. The community raised a whole range of concerns at the meeting about access to library services, but also about access to technology, computer services, etc. They also expressed concerns about their ability to go to other towns for these services.

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Clancy): Member for Chaffey, please be quiet.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: A whole range of concerns were raised. The meeting was well attended. It was the second of two meetings that I am aware of, and there were quite a few people there concerned about this closure. The decision was made on 16 April 2025 in a confidential session, and that is one of the concerns raised by residents, that this decision to terminate this agreement was made behind closed doors. Also, the decision was not made public until recently, when the council was required to actually give notice to the government that it wanted to terminate the agreement. In addition—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: Madam Acting Speaker, I think it would be courteous if the member for Chaffey actually just kept quiet.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Ms Clancy): Yes, it would be wonderful if the member for Chaffey could please show some respect, and then he would be able to stay in the chamber for his 90-second statement, which will be coming up shortly.

The Hon. A. PICCOLO: This matter is on the council agenda this Wednesday, given the concerns raised by residents. I will just quickly read out some portions of the report to the council:

Having considered the options, the CEO recommends commencing dialogue and entering negotiation with relevant stakeholders (Department of Education, State Library, Riverton High School, community) to draft an amended community library agreement and seek endorsement from all parties.

He goes on to say in his report:

Pursuing this option could result in a win-win-win, for the community, Riverton High School, and CGVC [Clare and Gilbert Valleys Council]. Should CGVC's requirement to address concerns relating to governance, transparency and accountability, support...be met—

Then a new agreement could be signed. I fully support this recommendation by the CEO and I would strongly recommend to the council that it endorse it, because the key thing is that when they made the decision originally they did not consult anybody. It was made internally, and so they are actually now correcting an error they made. I think the CEO's advice to the council is appropriate and it should be supported.

One of the things which I would also ask of the council at its meeting is to actually release that confidential report. If they are now going to engage with the community and other stakeholders, which I think is appropriate—and is a good move and one which I highly support—I think there has to be trust and transparency in the process going from here. The reason for the original decision and the reasons for that should be known by the community. That confidential report should be made public so that the residents can actually see why the agreement was terminated originally and see what can be addressed. Also, it brings, importantly, the community into a genuine dialogue with the council.

All I can say in terms of what the original decision was made for—because the report is not public—is that in this report it says:

The rationale for reform centres on strengthening governance, improving transparency and accountability, enhancing support, refining funding arrangements, and ensuring more effective and inclusive strategic oversight.

To be quite honest, I have no idea what that means in the sense of why the council actually made the decision. Certainly, the community have no idea why it was made, so I think it is important that the council act in an open and transparent way. If they endorse the recommendation by the CEO at their council meeting on Wednesday night, that will be the very first important step in doing that. I would support that and urge the councillors to support the recommendation.

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