Julian Leeser (Berowra, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise to speak about the Adult Migrant English Program. I will ask a question of the minister about that program. I am very lucky to represent a highly diverse electorate in Berowra. We have significant Chinese, Indian, Korean, Sri Lankan, Lebanese and Italian communities. Some of those communities are very well established. The Lebanese community has been there for the best part of a century. Some of those communities, like the Indian community, are more recent arrivals to our area, but all of those communities are enriching the nature of the Berowra electorate as they enrich Australia generally.

I have particularly enjoyed the friendship of the leadership of the Chinese community for many years and I particularly acknowledge the work of the Chinese Australian Forum, its past presidents Patrick Voon and Tony Pang and its current president, Kendrick Cheah, who will be known to members opposite. Some years ago the Chinese Australian Forum invited me to a discussion about current issues that faced the Chinese community. One of the key issues that they said faced the community is the issue of social isolation of older Chinese Australian migrants and also of women, particularly stay-at-home mums in communities. This was an issue that was recently drawn again to my attention by Justine Slapp, who runs a tremendous organisation: the Hills District Mums. She has acknowledged the fact that, when children are playing at playgrounds, the Anglo-Australian mums will congregate together, and often the Chinese or Indian grandparents who have responsibility for looking after the children are embarrassed to get involved with and talk to the Anglo-Australian mums because their English is just not high enough quality.

We have had an English-language program for migrants in this country since the 1940s. My family were all here by the 1930s. By 1936 the last part of my family came from Germany. I remember the woman that helped rescue my family and get them out of Germany. I got to know her very well. She told me that she got to learn English by taking the dogs for a walk in the park. If your first language is German, it is actually not that much of a jump to learn English. But, if your first language is one of the Chinese languages—Mandarin or Cantonese—if it is Hindi or one of the other Indian dialects, if it is Arabic, if it is Farsi, if it is many of the other languages that are now spoken by people who have come into Australia in more recent times, it is a much more difficult thing to pick up English. So I think we need to do more to support people whose first language is not English and particularly older people because older people and stay-at-home mums are more likely to be socially isolated. If you have good English, it is a passport to social integration. It is a passport to work opportunities. It is a passport to a better life in Australia generally.

The last census revealed that there are 513,583 people who filled in that census who said that they spoke English not well or not at all. Of those, 253,627 had been in Australia since before 1996. This is an issue that disproportionately affects women: three-fifths of people who responded to the census in that way were women. You have to imagine that that number is under-reported because (a) people would be embarrassed to report that they did not speak good enough English and that, if their English was not good enough, then (b) people would not have been able to adequately fill out the census. In my own constituency the last census revealed that there was something in the order of 3½ thousand people who spoke little or no English. That is why I think it is so important that we have a high-quality Adult Migrant English Program that can help integrate people who have come from a variety of different countries and provide a high-quality Australian experience to people not just in my electorate but right across the country. I think this is a wonderful passport to a great Australian future, to social integration and to better job opportunities. So my question to the minister is: what is the government doing to improve the delivery of services under the Adult Migrant English Program?

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