Public Libraries Victoria has circulated its State Budget Submission for 2026-27 to the Premier and key ministers, including Hon Nick Staikos, Minister for Local Government.
Across Victoria, public libraries deliver essential services that strengthen early years development, improve school readiness, reduce loneliness, and help people navigate an increasingly digital world. Nearly one-third of Victorians are library members, and in Melbourne’s growth corridors, almost half (46%) of all library users are aged under 25. With 1 in 4 library users coming from households living on less than $49,000 a year, public libraries are responding to rapidly increasing demand and helping offset cost-of-living pressures. Yet, as the PLV submission points out, state government funding continues to decline in real terms.
In 2024-25, state government funding represented only 15% of public library sector funding on average statewide, decreasing by 4.6% in real terms – the eleventh consecutive year of decline. A freeze on the funding distribution formula means grants have not reflected population growth since 2018. In that time, communities such as Wyndham, Melton and Casey have each grown by between 76,000 and 91,000 residents, placing significant pressure on library services embedded in some of Victoria’s fastest growing and most disadvantaged communities.
Libraries are at the frontline of early literacy and school readiness. More than half of all library programming supports children and parents and carers as their child’s first educators, including Baby Rhyme Time, Storytime, and targeted early years literacy programs. New AEDC data shows that 17.9% of Victorian prep students were developmentally vulnerable or at risk in 2024, the worst result in 16 years. Demand for library-based early years programs is surging, particularly in growth corridors, with many families turned away due to capacity.
Libraries also support people affected by digital exclusion, cost of living pressures and social isolation. As more services move online, people increasingly turn to libraries for one-to-one assistance with government forms, identity verification, and digital navigation. These services are unfunded but essential to improving access and inclusion.
In this context, ahead of the 2026/27 Budget, PLV is calling for reform of the Public Libraries Funding Program (PLFP) to ensure sustainable, equitable funding across the state. We are seeking:
- Introduction of a needs-based formula to distribute funding based on population size, factoring in equity indicators such as socio-economic disadvantage, population dispersion, English language proficiency, and the proportion of residents aged 0-5 and 60+.
- A ‘no worse off’ safeguard and top-up funding to ensure no individual library service faces a funding reduction as a result of introducing a needs-based formula.
- An increase of $10 million in 2025-26 to enable equitable distribution and the ‘no worse off’ safeguard, with permanent CPI indexation thereafter.
These reforms would enable libraries to meet increasing need in early childhood development, digital inclusion, social connection, and school readiness – all core to government policy priorities.
Read the Public Libraries Victoria State Budget Submission 2026-27.