The minister in charge of Canberra's public libraries has defended cuts to weekend opening hours, declaring any push to keep branches open in the evening or on Sundays is not in the best interests of staff.
Tara Cheyne announced more than a week ago no branch of the government's public library would open on Sunday and late-night opening hours would be cut in favour of earlier weekday openings.
The introduction of new opening hours follows a critical review that identified inefficient staffing and other dysfunction in the library system as the cause of frequent unplanned branch closures.
Ms Cheyne, the City and Government Services Minister, told the Legislative Assembly there was no joy in cutting opening hours but the government was acting on the advice of expert reviews and putting the interests of staff first.
"Since the work of the independent working group concluded, there has not been a single unplanned closure. That is a significant achievement. It is an achievement for staff, for management, for the service and for the community," Ms Cheyne said.
But the Assembly on Friday voted to call on the government to reverse cuts to late-night hours and pause the start of the new branch opening hours despite Ms Cheyne saying she was unable to follow all elements of the non-binding call.
The government had previously said visitor data showed demand for libraries was concentrated on weekdays and Saturdays, and more than 96 per cent of all weekday library visits happened during standard business hours.
"For this reason, hours will be shifted from the lower-use periods of Sundays and late nights into earlier weekday access across all branches, as well as full-day Saturday opening hours at town centre branches and at Kingston neighbourhood branch," the government said.
All-hours lockers to collect reserved items from library after hours are also likely to be installed at some branches by the end of the year after the review found most people using late-night hours at branches were there only to collect reservations, Ms Cheyne told the Assembly on Monday.
The review of the library system had identified the Erindale and Civic library branches for potential closure or replacement with smaller "express" locations; the review noted the branches handled a small proportion of loans despite both having a large footprint.
When Ms Cheyne announced the new hours, the government said in a statement: "These are changes to opening hours only. Every Libraries ACT branch will continue to operate, core services will continue, and library programs are unaffected."
The Liberals' Peter Cain, whose motion prompted the parliamentary debate over the library system on Friday, said he was trying to pressure the government to pull back on the "significant reductions and restructuring" to library hours.
"Reduced hours disproportionately affect people who cannot access services through standard weekday business hours. That's why we value our weekends," Mr Cain said.
Ms Cheyne told the debate: "Do people think there is any joy in these sorts of decisions? No, but 11.5 hours from 411.5 hours is not significant. It is less than 3 per cent. Mr Cain said it was significant, but I guess that is what you get from someone with third-class honours in their maths degree."
Under the new scheme, the Belconnen, Woden, Dickson, Tuggeranong and Gungahlin library branches will be open from 9am to 5pm, Monday to Saturday. Under the old hours, the branches were open from 10am to at least 5.30pm during the week, between 10am and 4pm on Saturdays and from 12pm to 4pm on Sundays.
Late opening hours have also been removed, meaning Dickson will no longer open to 8pm on Fridays and Woden will not open until 8pm on Mondays.
The Civic, Erindale and Kippax branches will lose their weekend hours and open from 9am to 5pm weekdays. Kingston will open from 9am to 5pm from Tuesday to Saturday.
Budget papers released this week show the government expected to meet its target of having 20 per cent of the Canberra population as active library users in 2025-26.
