Thursday, 5 March 2026

 Anthony CARBINES (Ivanhoe – Minister for Police, Minister for Community Safety, Minister for Victims, Minister for Racing) (10:30): I was pleased to have the Minister for Local Government in Rosanna just the other week to open our new Rosanna Library, with a $1.5 million contribution from the Allan Labor government and some $15 million from Banyule City Council. I remember the old Rosanna Library of course and studying there in my high school days and then being able to take our daughter there, as her grandparents did, for story time. It is a great location there opposite the new Rosanna station, which has seen the boom gates removed. Work has been done and thousands of people have visited; thousands of people have borrowed items already at the new Rosanna Library. It has a partnership too with the local supermarket, and we have seen that redeveloped as well alongside the new library – a real partnership project for Rosanna Library. I want to thank our librarians; they do an amazing job to support the community.

Libraries are free. Libraries provide a safe space for people to come together to enjoy their time in the community. They support families and they are great places for young people to study, for older people to come and connect and for families to have some time out during story time. Particularly with the $1.5 million contribution from our government, it was a fantastic opening over three levels with just fantastic technology. They did not have podcast rooms at libraries when I was spending a lot more time in them than I do today, but this is a 21st-century library that caters for future generations of Rosanna residents.