COMMITTEES

Mr SOON (Banks) (11:01): My career prior to entering parliament included time working in education policy, and I'm proud to serve as a member of the House Standing Committee on Education, who conducted this inquiry. At the outset I'd like to add my thanks to the committee staff, who do so much exceptional work and made it possible for the members of the committee to complete this inquiry.

I would also like to thank the many community members, academics, education leaders and interested stakeholders in this space who shared their expertise, knowledge and experience with us and contributed significantly to the conclusions of the report. Australia faces the most complex strategic environment since the Second World War ,and the challenges it brings are happening on our doorstep in the Asia-Pacific.

Our national interests in Asia are unique, and we cannot necessarily rely on other countries to share our priorities. Our capacity to express our own perspectives and assert our own national interests relies on a sovereign capability to engage with our neighbours in the region. What was abundantly clear over the course of our inquiry was that building our Asia capability is of profound importance for our security and economic success in the region, and we have never needed this understanding of both language and culture more than we do right now.

As has been said many times in this place, Indonesia is a pivotal partner of Australia in our region. As a result, it is of significant importance that we develop and maintain an understanding of Indonesia's language and culture amongst our diplomats, business people and communities to facilitate our effective engagement. As the member for Gellibrand noted when he presented the report to the House, as chair of the committee, Indonesia was the first non-Indigenous language spoken in Australia via the Makassan traders interacting with First Nations people on our northern shores.

Unfortunately, there has been a concerning trend in Australia's Bahasa Indonesia capability: there are currently fewer than 500 university students studying Bahasa, fewer than there was under the Whitlam government 50 years ago when Australia's population was less than half of what it is today. Indeed, unless something changes, it is projected that Indonesian language teaching is at risk of being functionally extinct in Australia in just five years time.

This is an ominous sign for our ability to engage with one of our most important partners. With submissions noting that a recent DFAT graduate recruitment round did not include a single Indonesian speaker, the pipelines of Indonesia capable members of our public service and diplomatic corps is at risk of drying up. While this Labor government is making strides in our relationship with Indonesia, signing the Jakarta treaty, more and more these milestones are being met in spite of a waning capability rather than because of a strong capacity.

Past Indonesian presidents have made it clear that Australian students learning Bahasa Indonesian, as well as Indonesian students studying here in Australian universities, were integral to our bilateral partnership. The committee recommends that the government treat an Indonesian language schools intervention package as a first-order priority, as well as designating Indonesian as a priority language—both measures that will be important in addressing this decline.

Further, Australia has one of the largest and fastest-growing economies nearby in our region: India. Just six years on from the signing of the comprehensive strategic partnership, we are well positioned to benefit from greater collaboration on science, technology, defence industry, agriculture, education and tourism. This opportunity brings with it a greater incentive for Australians to seek work in key innovative industries or in outward-facing Public Service departments to understand the nuances of South Asian culture and language.

However, the various South Asian languages are barely taught in either schools or tertiary institutions across our country. Indeed, in Australia, the teaching of these languages is largely done by diaspora communities and families rather than larger education institutions. Much like Indonesian, the report recommends that Hindi be made a priority language.

Finally, our relationship with China remains crucial. This government, led by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, has ensured that our relationship is characterised by respectful dialogue that promotes active engagement but also defends our national interests. In order to continue to support this important relationship, Australia needs a strong expertise in Chinese language, politics, economics, history and all of its nuances.

The National Foundation for Australia-China Relations has outlined that this expertise is in significant need of expansion as currently it is held by a narrow group of subject matter experts. The recommendations of the report are clear—firstly, a 10-year national Asia capability strategy that recognises the importance of sovereign, homegrown capability. The committee further recommended that the strategy designate Mandarin, Indonesian, Hindi and Japanese as priority languages to attract Commonwealth investment and other measures.

A number of the report's recommendations focus on how government can put students on the path to further study and success through targeted reform and investment in primary and secondary schools. One of the stand-out recommendations in this group of proposed reforms is working with the states and territories to encourage students to study one of the priority languages in year 12 by rewarding those who complete their course with a five-point ATAR bonus and pathways to university credit recognition, with guardrails to encourage genuine language attainment.

This was based on evidence we heard about some of the concerns individuals had when deciding on whether to learn a language as part of their studies. This sits alongside programs to build our language-capable teaching workforce by helping existing teachers with knowledge of certain languages to upskill in order to teach students formally, ensuring new members of the teaching workforce have Asian language skills by designating places in the Commonwealth Teaching Scholarships Program to individuals with a specialisation in priority languages, and building the skills of both existing and pre-service teachers through an Asian language intensive program that builds specialisations.

The report also suggests reforms to the tertiary education system to recognise the need to develop Asia capability, establish a network of Asian language hubs to guarantee the availability of courses and prioritise government funding for higher degree research, with a focus on Asia—amongst many other reforms. I want to conclude with a reflection. I mentioned at the start of my contribution that I worked in education policy previously, but early in my career I also spent time serving as an Australian diplomat.

My time at the department gave me so many incredible experiences, including engaging with countries across the Asia-Pacific. I can say from personal experience that Asia capability is pivotal to ensuring Australia is able to effectively engage with our neighbours. So many of our diplomats are genuine subject matter experts, shining examples of what Asia capability looks like in practice.

But what is consistent is the starting point: early engagement and interest in Asia. Both our current and most recent former ambassadors to Indonesia can trace their career back to an exchange semester in Indonesia as young students. They now stand at the forefront of our engagement with one of our most important strategic partners.

We have so many talented young people who are capable of building that expertise to be the future of our regional engagement, but we must make sure the system allows them to reach that potential. This is what this report emphasises, and I'm pleased to be part of a government that both recognises its importance and is willing to meet the challenges we face head on.