Page 3597 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 13 September 2017

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and our priorities reflect our community’s progressive values, and we will continue to deliver the reforms and investments that benefit all Canberrans.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

International Mother Language Day

MR COE (Yerrabi—Leader of the Opposition) (10.58): I move:

That this Assembly:

(1) notes:

(a) in 1999, the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation proclaimed annual observance of International Mother Language Day on 21 February;

(b) that about 170 languages are spoken in Canberra;

(c) the significance of preserving Indigenous languages as a link to Indigenous culture and histories and as an expression of identity;

(d) the place of language instruction in government and non-government schools and in other organisations such as the 40 community language schools in the ACT;

(e) the social, cultural and economic benefits of multi-lingualism to the ACT and Australia; and

(f) the encouragement to learning a language other than English contained in the government’s ACT Language Policy; and

(2) calls on the ACT government to observe International Mother Language Day in the ACT to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by the people around the world, especially those in Canberra, through:

(a) establishing collections and displays, sometimes called an “Ekushey Corner”, at ACT Libraries to promote and protect mother languages;

(b) promote the active participation, revitalisation and maintenance of local Indigenous languages;

(d) continuing the ACT Heritage Library’s collection of oral history as a means of preserving the multi-lingual inheritance of the ACT; and

(e) supporting second language instruction in schools.

The Canberra community is a rich tapestry of cultures and languages. We have seen the ACT repeatedly come together and celebrate our multiculturalism through events

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