Thursday, 22 February 2024

Local history funding

David DAVIS (Southern Metropolitan) (18:41): (742) My matter is for the attention of the Minister for Government Services, but it is also of deep interest to the Minister for Creative Industries. It is an arts-related issue and a history-related issue. The Royal Historical Society of Victoria has administered for many, many decades going back – actually, the Kennett government period was the commencement of this – Public Record Office Victoria’s local history grants program and the Victorian Community History Awards. At the state budget this year they sliced the funding for those awards to zero – to nothing. They have been there for decades and decades, providing awards for people who write local history and also awards for those small local history societies that do so much to build community, build social capital and build an understanding of the history of our local areas.

Richard Welch interjected.

David DAVIS: All volunteers, as Mr Welch says. These are local history societies. They deserve support, and the longstanding funding that has been there was stripped away.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria, local history societies and I went to work, and I pay tribute to the Broede Carmody article in the Age and to Richard Broome, the president of the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, for the campaign that we collectively waged to have this year’s funding restored. So the government stepped back. They said, ‘What a terrible mistake we’ve made. We’ll put the funding back for this year.’ Well, the Royal Historical Society of Victoria, the public record office and others have conveyed directly that the funding will not be there into the future, so these two key local history programs are to be funded at zero in the forthcoming years. It should be in the funding base for the department, and I do not mind whether it is funded through government services – the government seems to want to shift it over to government services – or more logically, I might add, through creative industries. But it is up to them where they fund it. I do not care – that is a second-order issue. The more important thing is that the funding is restored.

The Royal Historical Society of Victoria should again administer these programs and provide the awards night and the recognition for those who have done great local history work through their local societies or through writing local history. I mean, this is all about the history of our state. It is the history of our local communities. Whatever suburb you are in, whatever town you are in in Victoria, there is an important local history that is part of your suburb and indeed, I might say, part of you. So I am asking that the Minister for Government Services or his colleague restore the funding in full.

A member: Her.

David DAVIS: Her – sorry. This has been moving around, and the history people have been set on a circle-go-round. But I hope that they will restore the funding for both programs in full.