Dean Jacqui: Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dean Jacqui: Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6417. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki) 
: 
 You can only imagine yourself or oneself in the Labour Party strategy room and they are thinking— 
Maggie Barry 
: Scary. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Well yes but in this instance we are going to go there and we are going to think “OK we’re going to oppose the commissioners coming in to do a good job and pick up after Environment Canterbury because we really want local democracy.” Then they move on to the Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority post the earthquake and they say “It is really not fair of that bad National Government to take away local democracy.” Then you move forward a month or two and you go to the Local Government and Environment Committee and hear the submissions from councils fully backed up by their mates in Labour and they say “Taking away self-determination from local democracy—bad old National Government.” Then we have in front of us a bill the Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill that does exactly that. So what does Labour want? Well I do not think Labour knows what it wants. 
Hon Simon Bridges 
: A new leader. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Well yes Labour wants a new leader and it cannot even make up its mind about that. It is tearing itself apart as we speak. But we are now dealing with this bill in the name of Darien Fenton and all she is doing in this bill is shifting the costs. All those fine words about access to learning and access to libraries are all very well and crossing the digital divide and finding jobs is fantastic and finding shelter from the cold weather which is what they do in my part of the country is all very well but who is going to pay for it? Well under Darien Fenton’s “Labour-lite” world it is all going to be for free. Who is going to pay for it? Well not the ratepayers. 
So here we go. Let us have a look at the purpose of this bill. Clause 4 states: “The purpose of this Act is to amend the Local Government Act … to expand the public library services that local authorities are required to provide for free.” So if it is going to be for free who is going to pay for it? Let us just hold that thought for a minute because we will move on to clause 5: “Section 142 replaced”— 
Phil Twyford 
: Jacqui it’s called taxes. Hello Jacqui. 
JACQUI DEAN 
: Oh it is the taxpayers! The member from the other side of the House has now decided that the taxpayer is going to pay for local library services. Well let us ring up Local Government New Zealand and tell it that its Labour mates are now in favour of a complete takeover of local government by central government and that the taxpayer is now going to pick up the tab for library services. Let us just remember that thought. 
Let us go into new section 142(1)(a) which states: “the residents in the district or region of the local authority are entitled to join the library free of charge;”. Well hello here is some news Darien Fenton: they can do that already. It is already in existing legislation. So let us go to (b) and have another crack: “the library shall not charge any resident of the authority’s district or region for the use of library material including books non-print resources and digital information;”. Well who is going to pay? Who is going to pay for these services? Is it going to be free? Is it going to be the taxpayer as Phil Twyford is no doubt going to represent? Who is going to pay? Who is going to pay for these services if they are going to be for free? 
I just want to make one final point on this bill and I go to new section 142(2): “The National Librarian must present an annual report to Parliament on the implementation by local authorities of subsection (1) …”. Is that not fantastic? The National Librarian is now going to become the library police for the Labour Party. So not content with drawing money out of thin air—no should I say printing money because I suspect that is the only way they are going to be able to afford this policy—or printing money to give effect to this bill it is also going to make the National Librarian the library police for Labour so that it can go and check on local government. Here we have Darien Fenton and all this member is doing is shifting the cost. She cuts across all principles of funding of local government. This member should be ashamed of the ignorance she is bringing to this House. I do not support this bill.