At the Tuesday, June 26 Eurobodalla Shire Council meeting, councillor Lindsay Brown said he was disgusted at NSW budget cuts to libraries, when the state already had the lowest per capita spend in Australia.

“Libraries in the ACT and Tasmania are 100 per cent state funded, in South Australia it’s 40 per cent,” he said.

“WA spends $9.73 per capita, QLD $6 and NSW spends a grand sum of $3.76.

It’s the lowest since the 1999-2000 budget. It’s an absolute disgrace.”

Councillor Rob Pollock agreed.

“It was already at a lousy level,” he said.

“At a time when the state government has never had such a positive cash flow, it’s really a pathetic amount.”

Councillors unanimously supported the motion, and agreed with Cr Brown’s position that: “Libraries are more than just somewhere to hire a book.”

“Locally, we have more people visit our libraries than our pools. The state government gives $26 million for the pool and rips $5 million from libraries. I’m flabbergasted. How does that make sense?”

Councillor Patrick McGinlay agreed.

“I’m 100 per cent in support of this,” he said.

“It’s obviously something you (Cr Brown) hold very dearly.”

The council voted to contact, in the words of Cr Brown, “every parliament minister and cross-bencher in NSW,” as well as Cr Innes’ advocacy to the joint organisation.

“We should advocate as strongly as possible for the state government to do the right thing,” Cr Brown said.