Australia’s Asian-language capability has declined for decades, weakening our ability to understand and engage with our neighbours. Labor’s new language program may make a difference.

As foreign minister, Gareth Evans used cheerfully to say of Australia’s neighbours, “They’ll all learn English”. Which for many was true: but China and Japan now have more people with language skills in prominent positions than Australia does. Evans’ then counterparts in Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Vietnam and South Korea are English-speakers, and so are their successors and colleagues.

Understanding and communicating easily with China and Japan is critically important for Australians in government, business, academia and media. Everyone can now access translation online.

For 30 years, Australia built a leading per-capita capacity in Asian languages from the mid-1960s to the mid-1990s, with many Australians living and studying for extended periods in Asian countries. Then the well-documented decline in Asian studies in Australia began. Prime Minister John Howard undermined Asian languages along with multiculturalism, declaring that Australia didn’t have to change to be who it was in Asia, and dismissing speculation about whether Australia was an Asian country.

The Liberal Country Party coalition – seeking to minimise anti-Asian support for Pauline Hanson – introduced an Anglo-cultural identity and values questionnaire to be put to people seeking Australian citizenship, that recalled the era of Menzies and the White Australia policy. Now One Nation reminds us of it again.

Senator Hanson has, as she says,........

© Pearls and Irritations