Michael McGuire: Don’t cut library funding. Indeed, increase it

The Treasurer will end his career amid a sea of red ink but that means these critical community hubs are in danger, writes Michael McGuire.

Last week’s federal budget may have completed the federal Liberal Party’s damascene conversion to the wonderful world of debt and deficits.

We can all now safely assume the Liberals won’t be sending any trucks around the country carrying giant billboards trying to worry the populace about the “debt bombshell’’ that would arrive alongside a Labor government as we have seen in the past.

Still, that didn’t mean there were still not a few nasty surprises in the Josh Frydenberg budget.

The decision to cut back foreign aid, right at the moment when we are apparently trying to curb Chinese influence in the region, does appear somewhat shortsighted.

Similarly, next month’s state budget will see state Treasurer Rob Lucas liberally douse the budget papers in an ocean of red ink. This is to be Lucas’s final budget before wandering off into the sunset, and there is an irony in the man who for so long railed against the evils of debt and deficit going out in such a spectacular fashion.

Young student children listen to a story in a school library. Picture: Thinkstock

No doubt Lucas will comfort himself that in the extraordinary circumstances the state finds itself, it is the right thing to do. That anything approaching a slash-and-burn austerity budget would condemn the state to unnecessary economic hardship.

But again, it is likely Lucas will look to snip spending where he can. Aim for what may appear to be soft targets that won’t prompt too much of a political backlash before next year’s state election.

There has been some speculation that the state’s libraries could be one such easy mark.

According to figures recently released by the Local Government Association, councils spend about $86m a year on the state’s 140 public libraries.

About $25m of that comes from the state government as part of a long-term funding deal that expires next month. The rumour, which the state government has not got around to denying, is the next deal will be for less money.

As someone who has a couple of books I have written in at least some of those libraries, I’m possibly somewhat biased. But I have always loved libraries.

As a kid I loved them. As an adult I still love them.

I love stopping into local libraries when travelling around. Recently with my family I popped into the Minlaton library on the Yorke Peninsula and borrowed a heap of items.

Libraries SA’s “one card” program, which allows you to borrow from any library in the state and return the items to any other library, is a wonder of the age.

The book I am reading at the moment is a library book. Peter Temple’s White Dog since you ask. It’s great, by the way, and if you want to read it after me, you can reserve it at the Libraries SA website.

But libraries are not just about the books, audiobooks, newspapers, DVDs, computers, Wi-Fi and printers. They are also hubs where the community can come together.

My local is the Campbelltown library. There always seems to be something going on. People waiting to see a Justice of the Peace, gathering in a room to hear a speaker or some local history buff. There are displays of art and educational courses.

You can be wandering through the shelves and suddenly hear raised adult voices singing along with their toddlers to Humpty Dumpty or some Wiggles song that I have long forgotten. There is something lovely about that.

After the year we have just had with the COVID-induced isolation felt by so many, when community bonds were stretched and frayed, places such as libraries are needed more than ever.

We need places to gather where we feel comfortable and safe, and not pressured by everyday life.

In Britain, funding cuts have caused almost 20 per cent of libraries to close in the last decade. That is cultural barbarism.

So, Treasurer Lucas, as you sit down and work your way line by line through your last budget, leave the libraries alone.

Don’t cut their funding. Indeed, increase it.

See it as an investment in the mental health and cultural strength of South Australia.