Languages connect us, to each other and to the world.
But Australia’s capacity to make those connections is being eroded by the long-term decline of languages education.
In one of the world’s most culturally diverse nations, language learning builds understanding across communities while giving Australians deeper access to the cultures, histories and societies of our region and the wider world.
The Australian Academy of the Humanities has established a Languages and Cultures Committee, bringing together some of Australia’s foremost experts in languages, cultures and language education, to help address that decline and build the national capability Australia will need for the decades ahead.
The Committee’s establishment follows the release of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education report, Security and Prosperity in Asia: Building Asia capability in Australia through the education system and beyond, which warns of an “existential threat” to many disciplines underpinning Australia’s Asia capability.
Problem far wider than Asia Literacy, Academy warns
The report comes after decades of concern about declining language study, increasingly fragile university programs, shortages in the teaching pipeline and the loss of specialist expertise that can take many years to develop.
Academy President Professor Stephen Garton AM FAHA FRAHS FASSA FRSN said Australia had reached the point where the loss of language and cultural expertise must be treated as a national capability issue.
“We have spent decades documenting the decline of languages education in Australia. We now need to change its trajectory.
“Language capability is not an educational luxury. It underpins our diplomacy, defence and national security, our trade and economic relationships, and our capacity to understand and engage with the societies that shape our world.
“When a language program closes or a specialist retires without a successor, Australia does not simply lose a university subject. We lose knowledge and expertise that can take decades to rebuild. At a time when Australia needs deeper engagement with our region and the world, allowing that capability to disappear is profoundly short-sighted.”
Priorities of the new committee
The new Committee is chaired by Professor Greg Hainge FAHA, Head of the School of Languages and Cultures at the University of Queensland. Its membership brings together leading scholars and language educators with deep expertise across Australia’s diverse linguistic and cultural landscape.
Its remit encompasses languages other than English, Indigenous languages and ancient languages, and extends beyond individual language programs to the national systems required to sustain them: teacher and researcher pipelines, university provision, infrastructure, pedagogy and collaboration between institutions.
The Committee’s initial priorities will include establishing a Community of Practice on the use of generative AI in language education and research, bringing together expertise to understand where emerging technologies can strengthen teaching and research, where their limitations lie, and how they are reshaping the capabilities Australia needs.
It will also work with existing language, cultural and disciplinary networks and organisations across Australia, rather than duplicating their work, to strengthen coordination, align the national evidence base and amplify collective advocacy for languages and cultures.
Professor Hainge said the immediate task was to move the national conversation from documenting decline to designing a sustainable system.
“Australia has been warned repeatedly about the erosion of its languages and cultural capability. The latest Parliamentary inquiry makes the stakes clear: these disciplines are foundational to our strategic sovereign capability and to expertise critical to defence and security, diplomacy, bilateral trade and the economy.
“This capability cannot simply be imported when we discover we need it, nor can linguistic and deep cultural expertise be automated by AI. It is built through sustained investment in people, institutions, teaching, and research over many years.
“We have a rare opportunity now to get the policy architecture right. The Committee will bring together the evidence and expertise needed to help governments and universities build a durable system, rather than another short-lived intervention followed by further decline.”
Relationship between teaching & research capability is central
The Academy and its Fellows contributed extensively to the Parliamentary inquiry through submissions, supplementary papers and expert evidence. The Academy welcomes the report’s recommendations and believes several provide a foundation for rebuilding capability not only in Asian languages and cultures, but across Australia’s languages landscape.
These include a stronger role for the Australian Tertiary Education Commission in identifying and sustaining areas of national capability; protections for strategically important languages in Commonwealth funding agreements; collaborative delivery models that expand student access without accelerating the closure of local programs; and stronger incentives for language study throughout the education system.
Central to the Committee’s work will be the relationship between teaching and research capability. Australia cannot sustain advanced language expertise without researchers, educators and institutions capable of renewing that knowledge and training the next generation.
Professor Garton said the challenge extended beyond any single region or group of languages.
“Australia’s future is inseparable from Asia, but our national interests also require deep knowledge of cultures and societies across the world, alongside the protection and flourishing of Indigenous languages here at home.
“The question is no longer whether Australia has a problem. The evidence is clear. The question now is whether we are prepared to rebuild the capability before more of it disappears.”
The establishment of the Languages and Cultures Committee advances the Academy’s Australia’s Humanities Moment 2025–2030 strategy and its commitment to ensuring Australia retains the intellectual, cultural, and social capabilities needed for its future prosperity, resilience, and national interests.
