Ardern Jacinda: Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ardern Jacinda: Local Government (Public Libraries) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 07 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6416. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JACINDA ARDERN (Labour) 
: 
 What an absolute outrage to have that ex-Minister Nick Smith stand up and tell this side of the House that a bill to try to preserve what should be a sacred thing and that is access to information via local libraries is an attempt to overrule councils overrule local government and gut their ability to self-determination. I find it utterly outrageous to have the former Minister who has tried to remove the four “well-beings” from local government’s mandate can now stand up and tell this House that our attempt to preserve something that should be sacred is an overriding of local government’s jurisdiction. That is a complete outrage particularly given that we have seen some examples in recent times of local government considering paring back some of the services around local libraries not because of choice but because of pressure—the kind of pressure that that Government is happy to place on local government with no qualms whatsoever. 
Bureaucracies are loading down local government and that means they are starting to have to make choices between essential services and for instance having to send out bureaucrats to individually one by one register trees Mr Smith. That is the kind of thing that that Government has decided is more of a priority than the kind of cost that we would like to see maintained within councils and that is the preservation of essential services. 
Nick Smith stood up and said this bill is constitutionally flawed. This bill is quite simple. It is about maintaining what the public would assume to be a natural right of local constituents anyway. Most people would be astounded to think that we would need to preserve in legislation free access to books and things like internet services. The ex-Minister also said that the roll-out of ultra-fast broadband was going to solve all the issues we have highlighted around access to the internet. That is absolutely untrue. He obviously has not heard of something called the digital divide and it is very real—so much so that it is actually measured as one of the enforced lacks. Unicef uses it as a way of demonstrating whether or not children are all getting the same start in life by whether they are able to access a computer and the internet. We know that that is an issue in New Zealand—we know it. Material deprivation enforced lacks has increased under this Government and now they think it is fine to allow a situation where this will get even worse and will not even put in a few measures to protect the odd free service via for instance preserving what should be sacred. 
In this party we recognise the important value of libraries—we always have. Norman Kirk a great Labour Prime Minister left school at 13. He educated himself via a local library. That side of the House may try to call those services antiquated. They are very much still the hub of our communities. I know that where I reside we have seen those services under threat even in recent times. Grey Lynn Library which was voted by users across central Auckland as the best library we have was recently threatened with closure as the council came under increasing pressure to cut services. 
The natural place that they go? Those quiet achievers; they look to our quiet achievers and they threaten them and yet those are the places that our parents go for playgroups and to take their children for story reading. It is where our job seekers go when they want to access a service that is a little more safe and secure than a Work and Income kiosk. It is where our students and our elderly go. [ 
Interruption 
] If they are safe why is it then that there was debate Simon Bridges in Tauranga about charging for general hireage? You would have to rent a book for $2 a go. We are not even talking about the best renters like  
Fifty Shades of Grey 
 Simon—I know you would be an avid reader. We are talking about the general checking out of books at $2 a go. If that side of the House thinks that is acceptable then fine vote against this bill but on this side of the House we want to preserve our libraries and that is why we are in full support.