Steve Georganas (Adelaide, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to speak about a recent report and research paper that was completed in my office by Dimity Vlahos, who was part of the Australian National Internships Program, better known as ANIP, run by the ANU. The research paper that she did for us is titled 'Cultivating the Greek language within the Australian diaspora: the current landscape, barriers and frameworks'. I seek leave to table the report.

Leave granted.

I thank the member for Goldstein for allowing the report to be tabled. I'd like to thank Dimity Vlahos for putting together the report and the research. Her unique research aimed to address concerns around the decreasing usage of Greek language between generations here in Australia, and the findings of her report are extremely valuable for all of us here in parliament that have an interest in languages and provide evidence based research. Dimity is an applied data analysis student in her final year at the ANU and has been great to have around the office doing this research.

Her findings are pretty clear: Greek-Australian households in Australia are increasingly losing their bilingualism, with a high proportion of second- and third-generation Greek Australians speaking English only. However, around 21 per cent of the third generation maintain their Greek language. The report attributes this success to the high level of support in different communities through various Greek community groups and language schools, and there are multiple language schools within each state and territory. In my own state of South Australia, there are seven language schools with 18 classes that run weekly, and I'm aware of a couple in the member for Boothby's electorate as well. She's from South Australia. These are supported by community language associations, which receive funding from both state and federal governments.

Arguably, the most important finding in this research is that better support for the Greek language needs to come alongside better support for all languages in Australia. Currently, there's inconsistency in the language education system between states and different jurisdictions, and this has led to barriers not only for modern Greek but for all languages. As a proud multicultural nation, we need to better embrace and support our diverse languages. The report and research paper that Ms Vlahos has done shows the immense value of multilingualism. When I speak to other communities in my electorate, like the Italian community, they're all facing the same issue: the loss of their mother tongue in the second, third and fourth generations.

Monolingualism is an economic disadvantage in both international and domestic markets. A loss of language fluency is equivalent to a loss of human capital. It's something that we have. We should cherish it and support it. That will only assist us. It'll assist us in our economy, in our partnerships with other nations et cetera. A loss of language fluency, as I said, is equivalent to a loss of human capital. The research paper also outlines how multilingualism increases social cohesion in our community through giving individuals a stronger sense of identity and belonging. Now more than ever, we need to support connection between all Australians. This paper, here in this parliament, through this ANU intern program, as the first of its kind, provides a comprehensive overview of the current state of the Greek language in Australia. It is extended by evidence based solutions to revitalise the Greek language and support all languages in our multicultural society.

Ms Vlahos did intense research to the point where she actually did comparisons of other nations where there have been mass migration influxes, like Canada and the US. One thing that we have got to report that is very positive is that Australia, in maintaining its Greek language, is doing far better than Canada, the US and many other places. That was something positive in the report. There are also differences in the United States. Greek migration has been going since the 1800s, so that loss of connectivity is far greater than it is here. I'm very proud of Dimity. Those of you that have not had an intern in your office, please do so. It's a great experience for both yourself and the student.