Launch of ‘The Renewed Case for Asia Literacy’ report

Speech
21 September, 2025
Hosted by AsiaPacific4D
Online

I acknowledge the Traditional Owners of the land we are each meeting on today and pay my respects to Elders past and present.

I also extend that respect to any First Nations people joining us today.

I acknowledge the author of this timely report, Philipp Ivanov. Thank you for your long-standing contributions to building Australia’s Asia capability.

Philipp’s report, The Renewed Case for Asia Literacy, is a timely one.

Philipp has long been a leading voice in Australia’s Asia engagement and this paper is a call to action at a critical moment.

For decades, Australians have known that Australia’s future prosperity and security will be shaped in our own region, the Indo-Pacific.

Forty years of reports to government have made the case.

In the 1980s, the Garnaut Report, “Australia and the Northeast Asian Ascendency”, started Australia’s Asia capability journey.

Successive reports have said the same thing: Ken Henry’s Asian Century White Paper, Peter Varghese’s India Economic Strategy to 2035, and Nicholas Moore’s Australia’s Southeast Asia Economic Strategy to 2040.

The message is the same time and time again: if Australia wants to shape our own future, we need Asia capability: the mix of cultural understanding, language facility and regional experiences that are needed for Australia to be effective in Asia.

As Philip’s report points out, the case for Asia literacy has never been stronger than in the changing international environment that Australia currently confronts.

The Trump administration is pursuing a different role for America in the world.

China is seeking to change the regional balance of power.

Our neighbours in Southeast Asia are seeking to navigate their own way in an increasingly challenging strategic environment.

In response, the Albanese government has lifted our diplomatic, defence and development engagement with our region to unprecedented levels, using all of the tools of statecraft to maximise our influence in the region.

But back home, within our borders, the sovereign capabilities we need to be effective in the region have continued on a decades long decline.

As Philipp writes:

“when Australia is forced to be on the front foot in Asia, our systemic capacity to educate our leaders about the region is fragmenting.

Decades of underinvestment in language and regional studies, weak institutional frameworks, and a lack of a coherent national strategy have created a structural Asia competency deficit”.

In spite of decades of good intent, we’ve failed to build the Asia capability we need to be influential and effective in our region.

On many measures, our Asia capability has gone backwards.

Of the more than one million domestic Australian students at Australian universities in 2023, barely 500 students were enrolled in Bahasa Indonesia nationwide – fewer than at the time of the Garnaut Report in 1989.  

Between 2004 and 2022, there was a 75 per cent decline in enrolments in Southeast Asian languages at Australian universities.

Experts have warned that on the current trajectory, no Australian schools will be left teaching Bahasa Indonesia by 2031.

High school teachers’ associations warn that Bahasa Indonesia teaching is facing ‘extinction’ in our schools.   

Philip’s report makes a series of wise observations about these trends and recommendations for rectifying them.

I’m interested to hear the panel’s observations on this report but I want to take this opportunity to elevate a few of Philip’s arguments.

The first is the fundamental point that Asia capability is a whole of nation agenda.

Investing in Asia literacy underpins all of our tools of statecraft.

Asia literacy is a sovereign capability in itself that should be integrated across our national security and economic resilience agendas.

Secondly, Philip is correct to note that modern Australia looks very different to the Australia of the 1990s when we began our Asia capability journey.

We can’t just roll out the policy solutions of the 1990s again in the 2020s.

Developments in technology, diaspora and mobility all open new opportunities for what Philip calls Track II Asia Literacy.

Thirdly, and this is an often overlooked point, Philip emphasises that we QUOTE “Must move beyond supply-side policies for development of Asia expertise. The debate about Asia literacy since the 1990s focused almost entirely on the provision of Asia literacy programs, while demand remained consistently low.”

I’ve consistently made the point to advocates over the years that unless we solve the demand problem, increased resources invested in supply will be wasted.  

I said earlier that Philip’s report is timely.

Today, as Chair of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education, I’m announcing an inquiry into building Asia capability in Australia.

The inquiry will focus on the enablers and barriers to building Asia capability in schools and universities.

It will explore strategies to stimulate demand and improve access to language learning and the role of new technologies and diaspora communities.

We’ll look at how to embed Asia capability across all sectors: education, business, diplomacy, and civil society.

And we’ll ask the hard questions: Why have decades of policy effort failed to deliver systemic change? What will it take to make Asia capability a national priority?

As leaders in your fields, I welcome submissions to the inquiry to help answer these vital questions.

I’m happy to consider Philip’s report as the first submission to this inquiry! 

As Philipp makes clear, this is not a niche ambition. It’s not a soft cultural exercise. Asia capability is a central pillar of Australian statecraft.

Asia capability is about whether Australia can be an influential, competent and credible regional player, or whether we become strategically irrelevant in our own neighbourhood.

It’s about managing risk, seizing opportunity, and building durable partnerships in a region that is becoming more consequential every day.

Asia capability is not a luxury.

It’s a necessity.

As Philipp writes, Australia’s resilience will depend on deep, sustained knowledge of our region, across government, business and civil society.

Let’s make the choice to build Australia’s Asia capability.

Thank you again to Philipp for this vital contribution to our national conversation.