Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The opposition supports the Translating and Interpreting Services Bill 2025. This legislation is technical and administrative. The legislation provides a statutory basis for the provision of important translating and interpreting services. It addresses an issue raised in the Auditor-General's report No. 28 of 2014-15 with respect to authorisation for the charging of fees.

Translating and interpreting services in Australia have a long history. The first Commonwealth translating service was established in 1947, and the idea of a national telephone interpreter service was developed and announced under the government of William McMahon. Subsequent governments have continued to invest in and expand language services. In 1977, the Fraser government provided an additional $200,000 to expand interpreting services, extended the telephone interpreter service beyond capital cities to regional centres, starting with Wollongong, and introduced measures such as identifying bilingual Public Service staff and displaying multilingual signage. In 1977 in Wollongong, I was born, Deputy Speaker. I just note that, while this interpreting service was rolled out in that same town—

Mike Freelander (Macarthur, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

That's very important information, thank you.

Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Industry and Innovation) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

it was one of two important events: this translating service and my birth!

More recently, in 2015, TIS National launched a self-service interpreter booking tool, TIS Online, which dramatically reduced the time it took to allocate interpreters. In 2020, a video remote interpreting service was introduced to support healthcare providers during the pandemic. In 2022, prebooked phone and video services were integrated into the TIS Online system, allowing agencies and interpreters to manage bookings directly. The Liberal Party have consistently driven innovation and expansion in this field, and we're proud of our record in this space.

This bill seeks to provide legal clarity for TIS National by defining the functions of the Secretary of the Department of Home Affairs, validating existing contracts and authorising cost recovery from government and corporate clients. It responds to an Auditor-General's finding that the department lacks an explicit statutory basis for its fee-charging arrangements. It does not alter eligibility for free services. Programs such as the Free Interpreting Service and the Free Translating Service will continue to be available to individuals. This bill regularises an existing program that reflects a bipartisan commitment to ensuring that people with limited English can communicate effectively with government, business and community services.

The opposition's support for this bill is consistent with our longstanding record, from initiating the world's first national telephone interpreter service to expanding and modernising TIS National. I also support the bill for my own, personal reasons: my yaya, who migrated from Greece to Wollongong in 1977, when the TIS was being rolled out, had no English either.

For these reasons, the opposition supports the Translating and Interpreting Services Bill 2025 and commends it to the House.

Debate adjourned.