Ross Jami-Lee: Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ross Jami-Lee: Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6424. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAMI-LEE ROSS (National—Botany) 
: 
 I can see that the good people of Te Atatu are sitting at home tonight regretting the decision they made a year ago. They sent Phil Twyford here to do great things they sent him here to make big changes in the world but actually he came here to save them 50c for borrowing a book from their local library. That is what Phil Twyford is going to be known for after tonight if this legislation passes—50c at the local library. I want to know why Labour members are focusing on the big issues in this economy. We have got some issues to deal with. Their solution is printing money. Their solution is borrowing a whole lot more money and it is also about protecting libraries from the Christmas Grinch from the library Grinch who supposedly is raining down upon local government in New Zealand. 
Actually local government will continue to provide for libraries at a reasonable cost to its ratepayers like it has done for a long time. In fact if you look at the legislation that this Government is passing through the process around local government it actually talks about good quality local public services. I absolutely agree that libraries are part of a good local public services regime and that is why libraries in local authority districts around the country have been operating fairly well for a long period of time without the need for the socialists and without the need for the command and control economists sitting over there on the other side coming along and passing legislation to protect them from something that is just not even going to happen. Libraries in New Zealand provide a great role in local communities. I absolutely agree with that. But there is no need at all for this legislation—there is no need at all for this legislation. 
The explanatory note talks about public libraries playing an important role in our communities—absolutely—but swimming pools play an important role in our communities too. Are they now going to bring legislation saying that swimming pools should be free? What about museums? Museums play an important role in local communities. Why do they not have a bill saying that museums should be free? What about art galleries? What about hall hire? Local authorities do a huge number of things in our local communities that play an important role and that ratepayers and residents do value. Why are they not telling us they should be free too? It is because it costs money. They know that the ratepayers in New Zealand expect their local councils to look after their money sensibly. There is a cost to it too. There is a cost to it. 
I have looked through the Auckland Plan which details the budget. If the Labour Party legislation goes through in the form that it is written in then there will be ratepayers up and down Auckland who will be up for about an extra $5 million. There are ratepayers in Auckland at the moment who are moaning who are complaining and who are absolutely upset that the Labour Party member who is the Mayor of Auckland is proposing huge costs on them and we have got the Opposition on the other side wanting to impose even more costs on ratepayers. The Labour Party does not care about ratepayers. The Labour Party cares about ideological solutions to non-problems because this is a non-problem. There is no problem here at all. 
 I want to talk about some of the services that libraries do provide because libraries do legitimately charge for some of the more premium services. By premium services I mean the likes of DVDs. When Shane Jones goes to his local library and wants out to hire out a DVD then I would say that the local library should be quite within its rights to charge for it if it is a premium service that that ratepayer—maybe Shane Jones could be his name—wants to be utilising. What about CDs? If someone wants to go to their local library and hire out a CD I do not see why I should have to go to the local CD shop—I do not see why the local CD shop should have to have his business impacted on because the Labour Party wants to make CDs free in order—[ 
Interruption 
] 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Order! Sorry to interrupt the honourable member. There has been far too much of this tonight. I have been quite lenient but the rules for interjections are predicated on the assumption that the person being interjected on has the call. There are members interjecting on each other rather than on the person who is addressing the House. That is not allowed. 
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: Thank you Mr Assistant Speaker Robertson. If it makes the House feel any better I was actually quite enjoying his interjections. They are usually quite comical. 
Hon Member 
: They’re a lot better than Twyford’s. 
JAMI-LEE ROSS 
: They are a lot better than the ones coming from Phil Twyford anyway. 
If there are premium services that the library wants to provide and wants to charge a legitimate and small charge for that then they should be allowed to because there are businesses operating probably next door to the local library that will be having their libraries competing with them for free simply because an ideological solution from the other side has been passed through legislation. And the end result—the end result—of this legislation if it passes actually will be us seeing a reduction in services provided by libraries because if libraries and local authorities cannot charge for some of these more premium services they will simply stop providing them. That is what this legislation does.