Infrastructural and industrial development had passed the islands by until relatively recently. Entrepreneurs and multinational companies do not have a presence on the islands and the development of services to the islands is hampered significantly by remoteness from the marketplace, difficulties in the transport of raw materials and other factors. Everybody agrees islanders are disadvantaged, yet island communities are part of what we are. As the Minister stated, they are repositories of all that is best about our heritage, history and culture and that must be preserved. Senator McHugh shares that aspiration.