Labor's Asian language vision a delusion, says Stephen FitzGerald

LABOR'S promise of Asian language classes for every school student is a "delusion", says Australia's first ambassador to China.

LABOR'S promise of Asian language classes for every school student is a "delusion", says Australia's first ambassador to China, Stephen FitzGerald.

He said the plan contained in Labor's Asia Century white paper would not work because of intractable problems such as a lack of serious funding, inadequate teacher training and the crowded curriculum.

Gough Whitlam's China adviser, Dr FitzGerald also chaired the Hawke-era Asian Studies Council, which drew an early link between Asia literacy and Australia's international competitiveness. "I've been heavily involved (in previous Asia literacy plans) and every time, it doesn't happen. Something gets off the ground, and then it fails," he said.

He said it was time to try a new idea, bankrolling 10,000 young Australians every year to live and learn in an Asian country for one to two years, in line with a proposal by strategic studies expert Hugh White. "Australia has largely lost what culture of second-language learning it once had, to our national detriment on many fronts and not just China," Dr FitzGerald said.

He made the remarks ahead of next month's Beijing launch of his book on four decades of diplomatic relations between China and Australia.

The book is published by the Australian National University's China in the World centre, whose work according to Dr FitzGerald is a reminder that analysis and understanding of China depends on "a high capacity" in the Chinese language.

The Gillard government's Asian Century white paper talks up the value of "Asia-relevant capabilities" and boasts that all school pupils "will have access to at least one priority Asian language".

These are Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian and Japanese. The white paper says "continuous access to high-quality Asian language curriculums" will be "a core requirement" under the Gonski education reforms and related federal-state funding agreements.

But Dr FitzGerald said: "If you look at all the ... hesitation about funding the Gonski recommendations, you have to ask, can the government really be dinkum?"

He said a lack of sustained funding and political will had hobbled a series of attempts since the late 1960s to establish Asian languages in the educational mainstream.

He said a Keating-era program - the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy - did seem to be making progress in building a culture of language learning before the Howard government axed it in 2002.

He highlighted a Griffith University estimate that a 30-year, $11.3 billion plan would lead to only a quarter of Year 12 students taking up an Asian language. On recent estimates, about 6 per cent of Year 12 students complete an Asian language.

A spokeswoman for School Education Minister Peter Garrett cited funding for Asia literacy projects, the Asia-focus of the national curriculum for schools, and the Gonski reform link with the Asian Century white paper.