COMMITTEES

Mr GOSLING (Solomon) (10:51): I'd like to thank the member for Pearce for her contribution and the previous speaker for giving, at very short notice, a quite excellent contribution to this important debate. We all know that Australia is facing its most challenging strategic environment since the Second World War. We hear that a lot, and I think there's agreement about the situation and the times that we find ourselves in.

Building Asia capability in Australia through the education system and beyond, the report of the inquiry expertly chaired by the member for Gellibrand, states: Our neighbours in Southeast Asia are seeking new partners to protect their sovereignty and agency … To succeed in this new world, Australia's leaders and institutions need a deeper understanding of our region's languages, cultures, histories, societies and economies.

Asia capability is now a vital sovereign capability. I know this from personal experience to be true. Like the former speaker, I studied languages at ANU—Indonesian, not Korean.

Karena saya bisa bahasa Indonesia saya tahu kita bisa bekerja sama. Dan tanba ha'u bele ko'alia Tetun ita bele serbisu hamutuk. The translation, from Indonesian and Tetun, is: because I can speak some Indonesian and some Tetun, I know that we can work together.

In February of this year, the Prime Minister and the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Prabowo Subianto, signed the historic Australia-Indonesia Treaty on Common Security, reflecting the close friendship, partnership and deep trust between Australia and Indonesia. The treaty takes our defence cooperation to a new level. Indonesia's status as a key security partner has been solidified, with this treaty supporting bilateral coordination on supply chains, maritime security and enabling faster responses to potential regional crises.

Australia and Indonesia also agreed to strengthen two-way investment through a memorandum of understanding between the Australian government and the Indonesian sovereign wealth fund Danantara. The agreement will increase cooperation in information sharing and help identify opportunities for increased two-way investment, enhancing our shared economic security and resilience.

It builds on work to deepen Australia's economic engagement with Indonesia, which is of enormous value to both countries and a key part of Australia's broader effort to diversify our economy through growing markets in South-East Asia. One of the key trading commodities is live cattle, and we support the live export industry a hundred per cent. The Prime Minister said: I have come to our region first—because our region comes first.

I am here in Indonesia because no relationship is more important to Australia than this one. And no nation is more important to the prosperity, security and stability of the Indo-Pacific than Indonesia. Australia is committed to boosting trade and investment in the region through Invested: Australia's Southeast Asia economic Strategy to 2040.

The strategy is supporting Australian businesses to take advantage of trade and investment opportunities in Indonesia. This is the fastest-growing region in the world in human history, and Indonesia is central to that growth. It's already the fourth-largest nation in the world by population and is projected to be the fifth-largest economy in the world by the end of the next decade.

There are significant economic and defence opportunities in our bilateral relationship with Indonesia, and there is a clear ambition of both leaders, both governments, to realise these. This position of Indonesia as one of our key partners has been reinforced by Indonesia's role in ensuring the supply of fertiliser for Australian farmers and has provided us with crucial support during the current disruptions in the Middle East.

The Albanese Labor government has worked with industry and the Indonesian government to facilitate 250,000 tonnes of additional agricultural grade urea for Australian farmers from Indonesia. This demonstrates the close partnership and friendship between Australia and Indonesia. However, we're at risk of losing something vital to that connection, and that is our ability to speak Bahasa Indonesia, the Indonesian language.

Knowing some Indonesian allows me to have conversations with Indonesian friends and colleagues, and through my adult life this has been good for not only me but our country. Looking through the lens, specifically at Indonesia and Bahasa Indonesia, we indeed are facing a crisis. Across Australia, the study of Bahasa Indonesia is in freefall.

Australia has had a long history of teaching Indonesian studies; it has led the world in it since the 1950s. Though it still survives among primary schools that have made Indonesian mandatory, and I thank those schools for their wisdom, the number of students learning the language in secondary school has greatly declined, with the number of year 12 students being halved in a single generation.

I was recently contacted by academics that expressed deep concerns about the proposed changes to Deakin University's language program. These changes include downgrading the Indonesian language from a major to a minor, abolishing the Diploma of Languages and, perhaps most concerningly, moving all language provisions from in-person to online. These changes would severely diminish the learning experience of language students and have a significant impact on achieving any level of language fluency.

It also flies in the face of this parliamentary committee's findings that we are at a critical juncture for our country's Asia capability. These proposed changes are an example of a much broader trend, which I'll discuss in a second. But, before I move on from Deakin University, I want to give a quick example.

One of my younger brothers studied Bahasa Indonesia at Deakin and got some work experience at the Quiksilver surf company in Bali, but because he spoke Indonesian he went on to have a wonderful first part of his career with that company, and then he moved on to other companies. He's done so well not only because he's a good bloke but also because he spoke Bahasa Indonesia.

You'll find a lot of people around our country with similar experiences. Since 2001, the number of school students learning Indonesian has declined by 10,000 each year. University enrolments have dropped by more than 60 per cent since their peak.

Alarmingly, respected schools in the Northern Territory—which is a jurisdiction of our country that I'm proud to represent, and Territorians are so close to Indonesia—like Essington, Haileybury and other schools and universities across our country are considering ending their Indonesian programs altogether. I've spoken with them about this and I hope that they see the wisdom of continuing with Indonesian.

With the opportunities I've outlined today, my younger brother being one, my experiences is that of so many other Australians. This decrease, Australian students having less opportunity to study Bahasa—whether they be at primary school, secondary school or university—is happening at exactly the wrong time. That is why our government has committed to financial assistance to 600 community language centres and provided record public school funding to get more kids studying languages through to year 12.

We're investing in reversing the decline in languages and Asian literacy, with a focus on Indonesian and other priority languages. My pain point is that this isn't just about classroom learning; it's actually about our national capacity. There are many good programs that have been in existence in the past but are now no longer.

I think we should be looking at them and continuing to find those community-to-community approaches, those business-to-business approaches and those subnational engagements as well as the important work that we do at a national level and at a parliament-to-parliament level with our near neighbours in the ASEAN. Australia has always wanted to influence the Indo-Pacific, but we also need to start making the tangible impact that comes from knowing our region better.