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situation to put someone to, particularly, as Mr Wood suggests, if that person is from a non-English-speaking background. I think we are almost condemning that person or that organisation to failure in those circumstances. We do need to develop a way of making it easier, not just for such people but for anybody, to get to the point of what they want money for and to be able to account for it properly. There is also a problem in those circumstances of creating categories of funding, with gaps between those categories down which particular individuals might fall.

Mr Wood made reference to oral history, for example. I have had contact with one organisation which is interested in developing oral history, not just for the ACT but on a broader basis. The oral history of Polish immigrants to this country and their experiences are obviously very relevant to Canberra, which was home for many Polish immigrants, as my colleague Mr Stefaniak would testify. So, Mr Speaker, there is the question of how we make sure that applications like that for those sorts of projects do not disappear down those cracks. At the moment they do disappear down those cracks. I think it is true to say that there are no mechanisms there to pick up those sorts of things which have a partly local and partly national dimension. I think that is an issue we have to face up to, and I hope to do just that. On the subject of oral history, recently I had a letter from someone who was stimulated by the Chief Minister's announcement on the Kingston development. She told me about her project to record oral history experiences of early settlers or early occupants of Kingston. She has a very rich set of experiences already recorded, without any public funding - she has done this purely off her own back - of people who have lived in Kingston and who knew the powerhouse when it operated as a powerhouse. They had experiences of that part of Canberra before the lake went in. I think that those experiences, as Mr Wood indicates, are valuable assets, and they ought to be recorded and preserved.

Mr Speaker, I welcome the Opposition's comments supporting this statement, and I hope that it will be the springboard for some successful improvements in this area. There are a number of exciting developments happening in this area; but, of course, it will depend on the old chestnut - resources. It will also depend, I think, on the willingness of us here in this place to give it some attention and some focus.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

HOUSING

Ministerial Statement

Debate resumed from 4 May 1995, on motion by Mr Stefaniak:

That the Assembly takes note of the paper.

MS McRAE (11.39): Mr Speaker, I would like to thank Mr Stefaniak for reporting to the Assembly on his attendance at the Ministerial Council on Housing. It is useful for us all to know that the current agreement is to expire in 1996 and that some changes are being negotiated in line with key recommendations of the Industry Commission.

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