Page 2328 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 4 August 2021
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unable to have confidence that they will be able to access school buildings within their local region. It is very disappointing, to say the least.
It was interesting to hear the Chief Minister speak yesterday about the new facility at EPIC for the multicultural community and that there may be the chance for language classrooms in the building. It may not be the best location, but it will be good to see what comes out of that. However, that building is at least a couple of years away.
From my own time living overseas and learning a new language in that country, as well as from my mother and my grandparents’ experiences, I know precisely the impact of not being fluent in the language of the country in which you live. From my many years of doorknocking, especially in Gungahlin, I can tell you that there are many women with children who do not yet have proficiency in English. This is caused by the family’s need to prioritise financial stability above language skills and the prevalence of at-home mothers amongst new arrivals.
I studied this issue in depth in my first term here in the four years that I was shadow for multicultural affairs. The states and territories, along with the commonwealth government, share the responsibility to give new Australians every opportunity to learn and become fluent in English. To be able to experience all the benefits and responsibilities of being Australian, newly arrived people need to be able to speak English as much as they possibly can, and there are various barriers to this.
The study I commissioned in 2013 by my office shows that the family’s financial stability takes precedence over everything when people first arrive here. Very often that means that mums are at home with kids while dads are at work. That is how it usually works when there is a choice to be made amongst traditional people. As a result, men are accessing English conversation practice daily in the workplace; however, women are not.
The answer to this barrier is conversation classes in the home one on one, which until the pandemic were offered in Canberra. The other option is classes in a community facility, such as a library, with auxiliary child care. This is not the setting up of a full childcare arrangement; it leaves mum as the onsite primary carer of their children or, indeed, dads, where that is the case, and has a babysitter or a part-time auxiliary child carer in the room next door so that parents can learn English and not be out of pocket for the necessary supervision of their children. Affordable or, even better, free child care or the provision of English language conversation classes in the home can go a long way to resolving this tension.
That is why I have circulated an amendment to the motion, which I believe has broad support. While agreeing to Mr Braddock’s motion, it adds to it the opportunity for the government to take a fresh look at what English classes are being provided now and how they are being taken up. Given that the pandemic is unlikely to end any time soon, there is a need to ensure that these language skills development opportunities continue.
I move, by leave:
1. Insert new paragraph (2)(d):
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