<div dir="ltr"><h1 class="">Dollars thwarted Hawke language policy
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<cite class="">Bernard Lane</cite>
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<a class="" href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au">The Australian</a>
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<span class="">January 09, 2014</span>
<span class="">12:00AM</span>
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<img src="http://resources1.news.com.au/images/2014/01/08/1226797/387369-.jpg" alt="Joe Lo Bianco" width="650" height="366">
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<span class="">Australia's first national
languages policy was based on the work of Melbourne University's Joe Lo
Bianco. Picture: Michael Potter. </span>
<span class=""><em>Source:</em> TheAustralian</span>
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<p><strong>
AUSTRALIA'S first national policy on languages had social as well as economic aims.
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<p>But Cabinet papers from 1987, released this month, tell the story
of a policy adopted at a time of tight public finances, and amid some
scepticism.</p><p>Based on work by Melbourne University’s Joe Lo Bianco,
the policy included a balance between community languages and those of
“economic and diplomatic importance”, a boost to Asian studies,
intensive English for migrants, work on adult literacy, and support for
Aboriginal languages.</p><p>“This government’s national languages policy
is a concerted response to the crisis in languages education in
Australia, which is the result of many years of neglect,” said a draft
media release included in documents for Bob Hawke’s Cabinet.</p>
<p>“Language learning and use are too closely related to Australia’s
economic development to allow languages to languish as a forgotten part
of the curriculum.”</p><p>The budget proposed in a background note was $20.17 million in 19877-88, $36.4m in 1988-89, and $35.11m in 1989-90.</p><p>But
Treasury said any new spending had to be offset by savings because the
“overall budgetary picture … allows no scope for net additions to
prospective outlays”.</p><p>And the Department of Industry, Technology
and Commerce argued for a “greater accent on economic objectives” in the
new languages policy. Citing the “pressing need” to improve Australia’s
international competitiveness and external account, the department
urged that more money be spent on “economic and diplomatic” languages at
the expense of community languages.</p><p>Cabinet agreed to a $15m
package to implement the policy, noting “it would not be necessary to
announce (initially) the mechanism for funding community languages”.</p><p>In
recent years, federal language policy has focused in a haphazard way on
Asian languages but has failed to arrest sharp declines in enrolments.</p><p>The
Abbott administration has yet to say how it intends to deliver on an
election promise to have 40 per cent of Year 12 students taking a second
language within a decade. On the most recent estimates, the current
figure is about 12 per cent.</p><p><a href="http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/dollars-thwarted-hawke-language-policy/story-e6frgcjx-1226797387028">http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/dollars-thwarted-hawke-language-policy/story-e6frgcjx-1226797387028</a><br>
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