We wish to present to the Senate Committee our concerns with the proposed goods and services tax legislation and its impact on libraries. Freedom of access to information is a basic democratic right and the library infrastructure in Australia reflects a commitment to this principle. Rapid change in information and communications technologies and fluctuating currency values are placing great demands on library resources. Additional imposts arising from the introduction of the proposed new tax system could seriously undermine the capacity of our libraries to deliver an adequate standard of services to the community.
Libraries are service organisations.
Instead, they face taxes on goods and a wide range of services previously untaxed. Library budgets are already strained by the unpredictable currency fluctuations which affect their overseas purchases. If libraries are not protected from the cost disadvantage of the proposed tax system, their capacity to maintain, let alone improve, their services to the community will be seriously impaired, at a time when Australia needs to develop and promote itself in the knowledge economy. Libraries in the local government sector Public libraries are information resource centres which deliver to all Australians the opportunities for knowledge and lifelong learning. They aid in redressing some of the disadvantages of poverty, distance and lack of formal educational opportunities, at the same time supporting the needs of students, small business, local historians, people coming to terms with the demands of new information technology and other special interest groups.