Green MP battles Tauranga library charges | Bay of Plenty News | Local News in Bay of Plenty

A Green Party MP will be taking up the issue of charging for library books with Local Government Minister Rodney Hide.

And if the Tauranga City Council introduces a universal 50c charge on borrowing adult books, then Gareth Hughes will take a Private Member's Bill to Parliament to amend the Local Government Act.

The act allows local authorities to impose charges, and Mr Hughes wants  an amendment so there are no financial barriers standing in the way of access to books.

In Tauranga yesterday for a Green Party branch annual meeting, he couldn't believe the council was even floating the idea of charging for all adult fiction and non-fiction.

Mr Hughes, who entered Parliament three months ago replacing former Greens co-leader Jeanette Fitzsimons, is the latest person to heap criticism on the library proposal.

It will come to a head during a series of meetings starting May 31 when the council makes decisions on its draft annual plan.

First, submitters will have their chance to eyeball councillors during hearings from May 10 to May 13 when submissions will be made. Those submissions close next Friday.

Mr Hughes, the Green Party's library spokesman, said paying for all library books amounted to a war against core public services.

The inevitable consequence, as shown by several other councils who had gone down a similar path and been forced to drop the charges, was a sharp decline in library patronage.

However, he feared there could be a new drive by councils around New Zealand to go the same way if Tauranga pressed ahead.
 He had no issue with charges for high demand fiction - popular new books where there was such a big initial demand that councils needed to buy extra books to prevent long waiting lists.

Mr Hughes was dismayed the council also intended to drop library book stocks by 30,000 items - the equivalent of three-quarters of the books stocked in the Greerton Library.

"It will become a national political issue for the Government - it is an outrage what is going on here," he said.
 

Seven months ago, Mr Hughes was involved with Greenpeace protests at Port of Tauranga over controversial palm kernel animal feed imports.

A cargo ship carrying palm kernel grown from cleared Indonesian rainforests was boarded by Greenpeace protesters.

Mr Hughes was not among the 11 activists  convicted in Tauranga District Court on February 4 for unlawfully boarding a ship.