COMMITTEES

Mr NG (Menzies) (11:41): I rise today to speak on the House Standing Committee on Education's report, Security and prosperity in Asia: building Asia capabilityin Australia through the education system and beyond. At its heart, this report asks a very simple but important question: what kind of nation do we want Australia to become? Do we want an Australia that engages with our neighbours in Asia, opens the pathways of cultural and economic exchange and seizes the opportunities of being in the fastest developing region in human history or an Australia that is insular, backward looking and stagnant?

As my friend the member for Banks said earlier in regard to this report, this is one of the most complex geopolitical environments in our region since World War II. There are many areas where there is strategic competition, and we need to ensure that we maintain an international rules based order built on free trade. The Albanese Labor government and our minister for foreign affairs have demonstrated again and again that we have the capability to be a mature and long-term government that builds stronger ties within our region.

We've built stronger security ties with Indonesia, Singapore and Japan—as well as, just this week, Vietnam—and we've repaired the relationship in our first term of government with our largest trading partner, China. Geography has made us a part of this region, but the choices we make today will determine whether we have the opportunity to grow with it. I acknowledge the outstanding work of the chair, the member for Gellibrand, and every member of the committee on this report.

Together, they have produced a thoughtful and forward-looking commentary that challenges us to make the most of the incredible opportunities before us. The committee has made 34 recommendations to reprioritise Asia within Australia's education system and ensure all Australians have the opportunity to learn about Asia and its languages. Together, they present a vision for a more confident Australia that understands its neighbours, embraces its diversity and equips future generations to thrive in the region we call home.

A child who learns an Asian language in primary school may become a diplomat who negotiates Australia's interests decades from now. A student who participates in an exchange program may one day establish a business that creates jobs here, in Australia. A young Australian who develops friendships across our region may go on to become a researcher, a teacher or a public servant who strengthens Australia's place in the Indo-Pacific.

Yet the inquiry also heard a number of warnings. Participation in Asian language has declined markedly. The report warns that Indonesian language teaching is set to become functionally extinct within the next five years.

Only 3.3 per cent of Australian year 12 students studied Chinese, Indonesian or Japanese in 2023, which is down from 4.7 per cent in 2012. Domestic enrolments in South-East Asian languages at Australian universities fell by 75 per cent between 2005 and 2024. That's not a trajectory that we want to see continue.

Specialist university programs are under increasing programs. Opportunities for young Australians to immerse themselves in the region remain uneven and, too often, depend on the region where they live, circumstances or financial means rather than just their talent, ambition and hard work. At precisely the moment Australia's role in Asia is becoming more important than ever, our engagement with it risks falling behind, and that should concern every one of us.

If we fail to invest in Asia capability today, we are narrowing Australia's future. We are limiting the relationships we can build, opportunities we can seize and the influence that we can exert in Asia that will shape this century. In my community in Menzies, these connections are part of everyday life.

At the last census, around 44 per cent of people were born overseas, compared with 28 per cent nationally. We are one of the most diverse communities in the country. Forty-six per cent of people speak a language other than English at home, and, of the top five places of birth, four are in Asia: China, Malaysia, India and Hong Kong.

If you walk through our local shopping precinct, you hear the languages from across the region. If you visit our school, you meet students whose families have stories that stretch across continents. If you speak to local businesses, you quickly discover that many of their customers, suppliers and partners are found throughout Asia.

Last Saturday night, I was fortunate to be at the Asian Business Association of Whitehorse's Victorian excellence business awards with the Prime Minister, where we celebrated many multicultural businesses across a range of fields—like tourism, hospitality, trade—and we were able to recognise some of those outstanding Victorian businesses who give so much to our state and so much to our community.

I'd like to congratulate the president of ABAW, Bihong Wang, on another excellent event, as well as all of the executive and the volunteers with ABAW, the award nominees and the award recipients. As someone of mixed Chinese Singaporean and Anglo-Celtic Australian heritage, engagement with Asia is something which is deeply personal to me. When we were growing up, we were fortunate enough to be able to visit my dad's family in Singapore every few years and enjoy the amazing food that's there as well as, as I grew older, learn about the incredible story of Singapore and how it had gone from being a third-world country to a first-world country within a generation.

When my dad was growing up, he slept in a house with a dirt floor in the same room as his five brothers and sisters. Now, my cousins live in high-rise apartments that are built on reclaimed land. They've got a world-class public transport system that I think many people in Australia would envy, incredibly high rates of homeownership and a government that, in many ways, delivers on the social contract and has enjoyed the support of the Singaporean people for a long time.

I think there is a lot that we could learn from Singapore. My wife is Japanese, and I was lucky enough to live in Japan for 18 months, which is where we met. I was teaching English there.

Similarly, there is a lot that we could learn from Japan in terms of public transport and innovations like modular housing, which they have and use extensively. That could be part of the picture that we could take from that country to learn how we could increase our productivity in the construction sector. Indeed, many Australian businesses and developers are looking to other countries, as this report would recommend, to learn about their innovations and their expertise.

That is why one of the committee's most important recommendations is the development of a 10-year national Asia capability strategy. For many Australians, school is where curiosity first takes root. It's where a child hears another language for the first time, where teachers bring the rich culture and history of our region to life.

The committee's recommendation to establish Asia leader schools recognises that we already have extraordinary examples of excellence across Australia—schools that have built strong language programs and have forged lasting partnerships with communities throughout Asia, schools where cultural understanding is a part of everyday learning. In Menzies, we're fortunate enough to have schools and community organisations already fostering many of these connections.

Some of those would be language schools on the weekends. We have a number of Chinese language schools where people of Chinese heritage and also the wider community have the opportunity to learn a language that, again, helps us connect better with one of our largest trading partners. These schools remind us that education is about preparing young people to participate confidently in an increasingly connected world.

The committee also recognises that some of the most powerful lessons take place beyond the classrooms. There is something transformative about being able to go to another country, navigate their culture and discover that what once felt unfamiliar is beginning to feel understood. No textbook can fully replace the experience of living and studying and working alongside people whose experiences are very different from our own.

Programs like the New Colombo Plan have shown us what is possible. They have enabled thousands of young Australians to build friendships, develop professional networks and gain a deeper appreciation for our region. Those young Australians will return home with a broader perspective and greater confidence to represent Australia on the world stage.

That is one of the great opportunities that building our Asian capability brings. But it's also one of the great opportunities that a diverse Australia brings. As I said, we have people of diverse backgrounds, of multicultural backgrounds, in my electorate of Menzies, and them being able to bring their language skills, their cultural skills and also the people-to-people networks and the business opportunities that brings means that we'll be able to better engage with our region and with the opportunities that the future presents.

That's what we mean when we say diversity is one of our greatest strengths, and that is why we're absolutely committed to multiculturalism in Australia. I commend this report to the House. Debate adjourned.