Wednesday, 9 February 2022

Ministers statements: Living Libraries infrastructure program

Mr LEANE (Eastern Metropolitan—Minister for Local Government, Minister for Suburban Development, Minister for Veterans) (12:32): I would like to update the house on the libraries that have successfully received funding through the latest round of the Living Libraries infrastructure fund. One great thing about the Living Libraries infrastructure fund is that small rural councils are not required to provide matching funding, so small towns do not miss out on library upgrades and new services. That means we will see that Skipton, Numurkah, Euroa and Ararat libraries will be able to offer 24-hour access for locals to drop off and pick up library books.

I was really lucky to get up to some of these announcements where there is funding going to these projects. It was great in recent weeks to visit the Sir John Gorton Library at Kerang. I have got to say, the CEO and the mayor of Gannawarra gave Mr Gepp a huge wrap-up in their speeches for his advocacy for this project. At Rosanna Library with Anthony Carbines, the librarians he knows very well there were so happy. I was at Hampton Library with Mr Erdogan, a great local MP as well. I think the thing that we appreciate the most is speaking to librarians and hearing what they have done for the community in the last 20 months. It is amazing what they have done supporting the community during tough times, and that is why we are so happy when we can support this sort of funding for libraries that obviously is about so much more than supplying books. They are actually really critical social hubs, and we are so fortunate to have the staff that work in them and to have 277 libraries across the state and a number of mobiles as well.