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Good morning, it is a pleasure to celebrate 2015 Chinese Culture Day with you all here at Charles La Trobe College.

I also bring the warm wishes of the Minister for Education, the Hon Christopher Pyne MP.

The Great Learning – one of the Four Books of Confucianism – tells us that we should “rest in the highest excellence”, and it’s quite clear to see that you’re all committed to achieving the same.

You would all know that the modern world is a place where a second, or even sometimes a third or fourth language comes in handy, or is even essential in certain situations.

As technology has developed, the barriers that once existed around trade, travel and the way multinational companies and organisations work have been broken down. So much so, that today many of you sitting here will have friends or family that live, work or travel regularly overseas. Even some of the teachers here may have spent time working or studying overseas themselves, a concept which would be thought of as unusual even twenty or thirty years ago. For all of you sitting here today, living in or working for a company or organisation in another country is not considered unusual, in fact it happens regularly and represents an opportunity you should be able to take full advantage of.

It is because of this that the Government would all like to see 40 percent of Year 12 Students, across Australia, studying a language other than English within a decade.  At the moment, only around 11percent of current Year 12 students do.

We recognise that many of you sitting here will have applied for universities overseas for next year, or are thinking about doing this when you finish school. Some of you may even be thinking of taking a gap year so you can travel the world. Whatever you have decided, or will decide, to do as you continue on from school, the knowledge and study of foreign languages will always be useful.

Take China, for example. China has long been one of our largest trading partners, making Chinese a key language for our nation.

In 2013-14 alone, our trade with China represented $107.5 billion in exports and $52.1 billion in imports. Our biggest exports to China have come from the commodities sector; specifically those of iron ore, coal and gold. To do business in or with China, or even to study over there, you would all know that an understanding of the Chinese language is crucial.

To make it easier for students who want to get a taste of what it is like to study or work overseas, the Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has been instrumental in rolling out the Government’s New Colombo Plan.

This program provides scholarships for students to study, intern and be mentored in the Indo-Pacific region. We have put $100 million towards this program to make sure many students can benefit from it as they finish their time at school.

But the big question is: how to do you get the most out of this? The answer, I believe, is through learning and understanding language. But to get to this level where it is easy for us to spend time working or studying overseas, a person’s study of foreign languages should begin as early as possible.

If I were to ask any of you here whether it would be easier to pick up a new language now or when you were three or four years old, I don’t think anyone would disagree that the early you start learning a language the easier it is to pick up.

It is for this reason that the Government has started to run a trial of Early Learning Languages Australia, known as ELLA for short. This program will introduce preschool aged children to the learning of a foreign language, which in itself gives them a lifelong skill. However, we also know that learning a language when you are in preschool also improves your overall literacy skills.

To make sure that those who start learning a language when they are young carry through this learning into the later years of their time at school, the Government has made the development of languages in the Australian Curriculum a high priority.

This will make sure that wherever a student is in Australia, whether they are learning French or German or Greek or Spanish, all other students in their year level, studying the same language, will be learning the same things.

On behalf of the Australian Government, I’d like to take this opportunity to recognise and congratulate you all for the important work you are doing for the study of foreign languages.

Your work has allowed for a better understanding of one of our most important regional partners – China

As you continue with your learning here, and beyond as you move into the world, I look forward to hearing of all the positive things everyone involved in the Confucius Classroom will be doing.

(ENDS)