Luke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

It's a longstanding Labor tradition to anchor Australia's identity and find our security in our immediate region. This recognises the essential facts of who we are and where we are. At the last census in 2021, 17.4 per cent of our population identified as having Asian ancestry. This represented a seven per cent increase in just five years. In the 2006 census, it was 10.4 per cent, and now it's 17.4 per cent in just five years. That's massive. Asian-Australians make a formidable contribution across our nation's boardrooms, businesses and other organisations. This government is proud to count among its leaders the first Malaysian-Australian Foreign Minister, Senator Penny Wong, as well as other outstanding Asian-Australians in this parliament.

Our Foreign Minister has reinvigorated our relationships by visiting every ASEAN country—except Myanmar, for obvious reasons—and every Pacific Islands Forum member in our first year of government. Australia is also a part of Asia by virtue of our strategic reality. We are an Indo-Pacific country at the confluence of the Indian and Pacific oceans. We are a founding member of APEC and of the East Asia Summit, and we were ASEAN's first dialogue partner. We have close strategic partners in Japan, Indonesia, India, the Philippines, Singapore and others across our region.

I was stoked to assist in strengthening these partnerships recently at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, where I accompanied the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister earlier this month. Representing Australia on an important regional stage was a reminder of the importance of building Asian literacy here at home. Sadly, we have gone backwards domestically in the teaching of Asian languages. The teaching of Bahasa Indonesia in particular has, very regrettably, been in net decline in Australian universities in recent years. Only 755 students learn Indonesian in Australian highschools, and that's down 50 per cent on a decade ago. This decline should be urgently stemmed and reversed. I learned Bahasa Indonesia at the Australian National University and then in the Army, and I regularly use it in meetings with Indonesian stakeholders in the course of my duties both in the parliament and around the country and region. Even a few words in the language of another culture signals enormous respect. I'm nowhere near fluent, but at the Shangri-La Dialogue my Bahasa was acknowledged by an Indonesian minister. So it is noticed and it is appreciated.

Sports diplomacy is another key tool for fashioning strong, endurable relationships within the region. During my recent visit to New Zealand and Samoa, two big rugby-loving countries, I raised the importance of deepening sports-diplomacy initiatives in the Pacific in meetings, and there was great interest in this. When I briefly met Fiji's Prime Minister Rabuka, during his visit to New Zealand last week, I invited him, humbly, to participate in the Parliamentary Rugby World Cup in late August in Paris. He is going to be over there watching the Fijian national team, obviously. Sport is a language we share with our Pacific family, and it's not just rugby union but other sports as well: rugby league and many others.

DFAT is leading this national effort with PacificAus Sports. This is an investment of $15.6 million non-ODA and $2.5 million ODA per annum. It aims to strengthen regional sporting connections and create new opportunities for Pacific athletes. And Team Up is a $6 million ODA per annum program involving over 60 partners, delivering sport for development programs across 13 sports in Fiji, Nauru, PNG, Samoa, Tonga and Vanuatu. It focuses on gender, disability, leadership and governance.

Arts diplomacy is another area where we can do more, and I'd like to highlight, in the seconds remaining, the Bali Artists Camp which has involved, over a period of time, Balinese artists coming to the Northern Territory and Aboriginal Territorians going to Bali. So cultural diplomacy and sports diplomacy are incredibly strong.

See this speech in context