Julian Hill (Bruce, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

I am delighted to rise to speak on this motion. I represent the electorate in parliament with the highest percentage of first generation migrants born in another country, an electorate where for 56 per cent of people, when they shut the front door at night, their preferred language is not English. Conversely, only 44 per cent of people speak English at home in my electorate. So, day to day, the role of professional interpreters and translators in my community is absolutely critical. I can see the government showing its care for this issue by the number of speakers listed, which I think is zero.

It is an important motion in its own right for some of the reasons touched on, and which I will expand on. It is also particularly timely given English and foreign languages are a topic of debate today given the government's changes to English language requirements for citizenship—these extreme changes to require university standard English to become a citizen. As we have said, it is ridiculous, it is unnecessary, it is snobbery given conversational English has served Australia well for decades and the citizenship test is already in English. As we have also said, it is a stunt, it is political and it is part of the immigration minister's leadership campaign: to pick an impossible test that sounds good and looks tough. But that is a debate for later. It is an irony and a shame though, because millions of Australians would not pass that IELTS 6 test. They would not pass it, including, dare I say, some members of this House. I think the Deputy Prime Minister in question time regularly needs a professional translator and interpreter because we cannot understand what he is saying—and allegedly he is speaking English!

There are circumstances where people need professional interpreters. As has been mentioned, legal situations—and this is not even Australian citizens; this stuff is critical to facilitate economic trade, development, business and commerce. As we talk about finding our way in the Asian century, having professional, experienced international UN level 4 and 5 translators able to negotiate multibillion-dollar contracts is key. So this is not just for community social cohesion; it is actually critical for our economy.

The member for Cowan has outlined the health situation. In the case of older people who may have good English, it is a fact of life when you age that your English language skills, your second and third language skills, tend to deteriorate and so when you need to deal in complex matters, then professional interpreters and translators are particularly critical. And I have also seen far too many situations in my community where children—teenagers, school kids—are being used as the interpreters in adult situations for their families and family members for a range of reasons.

The federal government's response to that, it was one of the issues that came up during the election campaign and in the six to 12 months lead-up, is to attack and cut interpreter services. I will give the example of South East Community Links serving a large chunk of South-East Melbourne across the member for Hotham's electorate, the member for Isaacs's electorate and my electorate in particular. This service provides employment services—particularly, but not solely, focused on new migrants—financial counselling and so on. In one of the cruellest decisions of the Abbott-Turnbull Joyce-Turnbull—whatever you call them—government, they cut emergency relief funding. But not only did they cut emergency relief funding and this basic community support, they also cut access to interpreter services. These relief agencies, working with the most vulnerable people in the community, were then being forced to dip into this relief money to also pay for interpreter services. For decades it has been an understood part of the public service fabric in this country that professional standard interpreter services are not some luxury optional extra in our society; they are a critical service that needs to be provided on a universal basis for important public services.

I contrast this with the Victorian government. I saw a press release in the last few weeks that says they are now innovating in translation in health services. There have been very small but important grants provided for videoconferencing across regional areas for multicultural communities. Of course we also have tourists as visitors, so this is not only about Australian residents; it is about visitors to our country needing health services. There are grants for language services in emergency wards, where it is particularly critical that you get quick and timely information, so, again, video services are going to help. And grants for improved data systems to manage health outcomes for pregnant women.

In closing, I would acknowledge and pay tribute to those in the profession. It is not only great language skills that you need to do this but also cultural skills and cultural understanding to get the nuance and dialects in many cases. It is also a position of great trust because, when you are dealing with people in very vulnerable situations or with economically critical situations for the country or for business trading, you need to be sure that the people providing this service are of the very highest international standard.

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