Senate debates Questions on Notice
Foreign Affairs (Question No. 545)
David Johnston WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence
asked the Minister representing the Minister for Foreign Affairs, upon notice, on 25 March 2011:
(1) How many ambassadors/high commissioners are fluent in the official language of the country in which they are currently posted.
(2) How many departmental officials are considered fluent in: (a) Bahasa Indonesia or other Indonesian dialects; (b) Japanese; (c) Mandarin; (d) Hindi; (e) Korean; (f) Arabic; (g) French; and (h) German.
Stephen Conroy Victoria, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate
The Minister for Foreign Affairs has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:
(1) 31 ambassadors/high commissioners are fluent in the official language of the country to which they are currently posted where English is not the official language.
(2) The following table shows the number of departmental officials fluent in the particular language: