New MP for Kogarah Chris Minns has called for ‘‘a big and bold decision’’ to make Mandarin a compulsory subject in all NSW schools.
In his inaugural speech in Parliament, Mr Minns also supported direct foreign investment in the NSW economy, while saying this did not mean he favoured electricity privatisation.
Premier Mike Baird later said Mr Minns had shown ‘‘guts’’ in rejecting Labor head office’s ‘‘xenophobic campaign’’ at this year’s election over speculation about Chinese investment in the state’s power industry.
Mr Minns said Kogarah was home to people from all over the world and 61 per cent of residents spoke a language other than English at home.
It had the highest percentage of Chinese Australians in the country at a time when China was emerging as a major economic power.
Mr Minns said a recent study by PriceWaterhouse Coopers found Australian businesses had more direct foreign investment in New Zealand, which had just over four million people, than in all of Asia, with a total population of four billion.
‘‘The study shows, despite all the rhetoric about Australian readiness for the Asian century, in terms of business we are still not of Asia, we are simply floating within it,’’ he said.
Mr Minns said the leading cause of Australia being unprepared to take advantage of the Asian century was that Australian firms were unsure about Asian customs and languages and lacked Asian contacts.
‘‘A big and bold decision by this Parliament to mandate the teaching of Mandarin to all NSW schoolchildren from kindergarten to year 12 would make a big, positive difference,’’ he said.
‘‘Last year, out of 70,000 children who finished the Higher School Certificate, only 0.5 per cent studied Mandarin.
‘‘This is a miserly number particularly given that most countries in Asia, as well as European Union member countries, including recently the United Kingdom, have mandated the teaching of a second language in their schools.’’
Mr Minns said the federal government’s white paper on Australia in the Asian Century, ‘‘which has shamefully been abandoned,’’ called for Australian children to learn one of four priority languages: Mandarin, Hindi, Indonesian or Japanese.
‘‘If compulsory Mandarin is too much of a stretch for the NSW curriculum, then at a minimum the white paper’s suggestions should be implemented,’’ he said.
Do you think Mandarin should be taught in all schools?
