David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 25 March 2011:

(1)   How many ambassadors/high commissioners are fluent in the official language of the country in which they are currently posted.

(2)   How many departmental officials are considered fluent in: (a) Bahasa Indonesia or other Indonesian dialects; (b) Japanese; (c) Mandarin; (d) Hindi; (e) Korean; (f) Arabic; (g) French; and (h) German.

Stephen Conroy (Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Foreign Affairs has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

(1)   31 ambassadors/high commissioners are fluent in the official language of the country to which they are currently posted where English is not the official language.

(2)   The following table shows the number of departmental officials fluent in the particular language: