CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY
I acknowledge the First Australians on whose land we meet, the first peoples of this land to trade and engage with the region we now call Asia.
I am honoured to address this gathering of eminent Australians committed to enhancing our country's engagement with Asia.
A gathering that is sponsored by two great institutions.
The Asia Society has a long history in the United States and has established itself as a strong presence here in Australia over the past 13 years.
It has joined Asialink in carving out for itself a key role in promoting Australia's relations with Asia.
This year, we mark the 20th anniversary of Asialink's founding.
In 1990, Australia's first Ambassador to the People's Republic of China, Professor Stephen Fitzgerald, joined with the Myer Foundation to create a new institution dedicated to building bridges of learning and understanding between Australia and Asia.
And so Asialink was born.
In Asialink's 20th anniversary year, I pay tribute to Stephen Fitzgerald and Sid Myer, and thank them - on behalf of the nation - for their vision and persistence.
I also thank emeritus Vice Chancellor, Professor David Pennington, who had the foresight to offer Melbourne University as the home for Asialink.
Asialink's anniversary represents 20 years of tireless work to promote public understanding of the countries of Asia and of Australia's role in the region.
Twenty years in which Asialink has grown from two people operating from a Carlton terrace house to a team of 45 staff in world-class headquarters in the Sidney Myer Asia Centre at the University of Melbourne, where Heads of State and international conferences can be hosted.
Twenty years, also, in which Australia's engagement with and attitudes toward Asia have been transformed.
In 20 years, Asialink has grown in influence and reputation.
In partnership with Education Services Australia, and with core government funding, it has established the Asia Education Foundation to inform curriculum development and educate teachers.
It conducts study tours that make Asia literacy a reality for hundreds of Australians.
It undertakes business engagement and leadership programs that shape the relationships of the future.
And the PricewaterhouseCoopers Melbourne Institute Asialink Index is a vital new tool for assessing how well our aspirations for Asia engagement translate into reality.
The Asialink Index has brought together for the first time a diverse array of data ranging from trade and investment to tourism, migration and humanitarian assistance.
The index shows that Australia's engagement with Asia has grown by a factor of more than four since 1990 - significantly outstripping our engagement with the rest of the world.
In other words, our level of economic and cultural engagement with Asia is now more than four times what it was 20 years ago - reflecting a transformation in Australia's place in the global economy.
In the same period our ties with the countries of South East Asia have also grown by a factor of four.
And our relations with China have grown by a factor of 15.
As the global balance of economic and strategic power shifts to our region, Asia matters to Australia as never before.
The Asia Pacific accounts for 60 per cent of the world's population and 70 per cent of the world's carbon emissions.
This year the region, with China at its core, will be responsible for 75 per cent of global economic growth.
Asia-watchers also know that our region can be subject to instability and strategic competition - as recent events in Thailand and the waters surrounding Korea have reminded us.
It is home to the six largest standing armies in the world.
Rapid economic growth is fuelling defence spending.
And we know from history that major shifts in the geostrategic balance have rarely occurred without upheaval.
Against this backdrop, this government's approach has been one of active engagement and creative middle power diplomacy.
I am proud of what we have achieved with Asia.
We have added new depth to our key bilateral relationships.
We have pushed forward the debate about the future of our regional institutions.
On the defence and security side we have increased ties with key partners in the region, including Japan and South Korea.
With Japan we established the International Commission on Nuclear Non-proliferation and Disarmament.
This independent Commission's report has formed the basis of joint work by the two governments that we have taken to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference currently underway in New York.
This is a clear illustration of the shared values and interests we have with Japan.
With South Korea we now have for the first time a framework for our security cooperation.
We have broadened our relations with India having forged a new strategic partnership - reflecting a commitment by both governments to move beyond the fitful engagement of the past and into a long-term partnership.
Our relations with China had some bumps in the road last year, but are very strong.
We have had a series of senior visits in both directions that underline the commitment of both countries to the relationship.
And our pavilion at the Shanghai Expo is a demonstration of our commitment to a good relationship with China.
I am told - by the Vice Chairman of China's Central Military Commission, General Guo Boxiong who visited Australia last week - that our pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo is one of the best!
Our relations with Indonesia are at an all time high.
Earlier this year we hosted President Yudhoyono of Indonesia.
He became the first Indonesian President to address the Australian Parliament.
And we both agreed that the relationship between Australia and Indonesia had never been stronger.
We have worked hard with the new Government of Prime Minister Najib in Malaysia to build on our strong historical links to bring our relationship into the next phase - a phase where we work together not just bilaterally, but also regionally and globally.
We have hosted senior visitors from Vietnam - Prime Minister Dung and General Secretary Manh of the Communist Party.
These visits resulted in us agreeing to establish a Comprehensive Partnership - a road map for taking forward the relationship across a wide range of fields.
Our bilateral political, security and defence ties with key partners are growing.
So too are our commercial ties.
Last year, Australia's trade with Asia outstripped our commerce with the rest of the world by 50 per cent.
But we are not content to leave matters there.
We are negotiating free trade agreements with China, Japan, South Korea and Malaysia, and we hope soon to commence talks with India and Indonesia.
We are working to advance Australia's standing as a regional hub for financial services.
On the regional political front, we are an active member of the major forums of the region, including the East Asia Summit, the ASEAN Regional Forum and APEC.
This year, we joined the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation summit as an observer.
In October, for the first time, we will participate in the Asia Europe Meeting.
We will have a seat at the table when the leaders of world's most economically dynamic region meet with the leaders of the world's largest single market - the European Union.
We are working closely with regional partners such as South Korea, Japan, China and Indonesia to reform global economic governance through the G20.
And we have instigated the debate on how best to shape regional architecture to form a community capable of addressing the full range of shared challenges facing the Asia Pacific.
This question is critical for our future.
We need a stable and prosperous region.
We need to shape regional dynamics so that cooperation and dialogue are the norm.
We cannot simply sit by and watch relationships in this dynamic region unfold.
I welcome very much the decision of ASEAN leaders at their summit in Hanoi on 8-9 April this year to encourage the United States and Russia to deepen their engagement in evolving regional architecture.
I note also that President Yudhoyono of Indonesia and Prime Minister Lee of Singapore said after they met recently that inviting the US and Russia to meet with ASEAN and the six other members of the East Asia Summit - China, South Korea, Japan, India, Australia and New Zealand - would be one way to achieve this deeper engagement.
It is clear that a range of partners in Asia agree with Australia that reform of our regional architecture - including, vitally, deeper engagement with the United States - is needed.
This is what we are seeking - engagement in a cooperative institution of all of the key players in the region.
In sum, our diplomatic relations with Asia have never been stronger.
But, as you at this forum are well aware, that is not the whole story.
True engagement means building bridges at all levels - not just between governments.
As you know, my vision is for Australia to be the most Asia-literate nation in the collective West.
My vision is that Australians should be able to communicate with our neighbours with understanding and ease.
If we can achieve that goal, we will be better placed to make a contribution to the region and make the most of the opportunities with which its development will present us.
As I have said at this Forum in the past, unless we have the capacity to create an Asia-literate Australia - one which is knowledgeable in the languages of the region and familiar with the principal cultures of the region - the task we face will be very difficult.
Today - as the Prime Minister of this Commonwealth - I reiterate these sentiments.
But the truth is that we, as a nation, are not yet fully equipped to take advantage of the transformation taking place on our doorstep.
On assuming office, my government was faced with the challenge of overcoming years of Asia-literacy neglect under our predecessors.
The Keating Government in the early 1990s implemented the National Asian Languages and Studies in Australian Schools Strategy (NALSAS), to advance the teaching of Asian languages and studies of Asia in Australian schools.
I'm proud to have worked extensively on the establishment of that program.
But I regret that in 2002, the former coalition government axed this program.
A mistake, incidentally, that Tony Abbott has today told you he apparently recognizes he must fix - although he was, of course, a member of the government that cut the program in the first place.
I have always found that 2002 decision inexplicable.
Under NALSAS, the Commonwealth had worked effectively with the States and Territories to almost double Asian language studies enrolments in schools across Australia in the space of six years.
Predictably enough, cancelling this program caused enrolments to crash.
Today I am releasing three new reports commissioned by the Australian Government on the teaching of Asian languages in Australian schools, which complement an earlier University of Melbourne report on Chinese language education.
These reports, prepared by academic experts in conjunction with the Asia Education Foundation, provide the most current data and insight into the state of Japanese, Chinese, Indonesian and Korean language education in Australia.
They clearly demonstrate the scope of the challenge ahead.
They indicate an alarming 22 per cent drop between 2000 and 2008 in the number of Australian students studying one of these four Asian languages from kindergarten to Year 12.
At a time when our Asian literacy should have been growing stronger, it grew weaker.
At a time when more students should have been studying Asian languages, fewer undertook those studies.
This is a trend we must reverse.
And the Australian Government has acted to do so.
In the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Education Goals for Young Australians, all Australian Education Ministers agreed on the importance of producing young citizens capable of relating to - and communicating across - the cultures and countries of Asia.
The Council of Australian Governments has set an ambitious target:
- that, by 2020, we will increase to at least 12 per cent the number of students leaving Year 12 fluent enough in Chinese, Indonesian, Japanese or Korean to engage in trade and commerce in Asia or university study.
And the Australian Government quickly implemented plans to meet this objective.
In 2008, we committed $62.4 million over four years to a new program aimed at increasing the number of students who take up one of the four key Asian languages.
Implementation of the National Asian Languages and Studies in Schools Program (NALSSP) is progressing well.
There has been strong interest across the education community since the program commenced on 1 January 2009, and states and territories have developed innovative plans to meet the 2020 target.
These include online distance education materials, extended curriculums for advanced students, in-country study tours, student incentives and scholarships, and linking secondary students with young people who are using an Asian language in the workforce.
One of seven projects funded under the NALSSP has enabled Deakin University to open a new Centre for Teaching Asian Languages and Cultures last November.
Recently, a Year 11 student from Queensland wrote to me about his experience of studying in Japan.
His school had received an Asia literacy grant under the NALSSP.
This young student, who had not studied a foreign language until last year, wrote that:
"breaking the language barrier is a difficult thing to do .... I can see this language and others taking a prominent place in my future, as well as many return trips to Japan."
For this student, among many others including myself, learning an Asian language has not just been about career advancement.
His words demonstrate the discovery of an inner passion for languages that opens doors to understanding.
Clearly, the Government's efforts are having an impact on the lives of young Australians.
But we are committed to doing more.
The new national curriculum recognises the need for young Australians to have the skills, knowledge and understandings to engage with Asia.
I thank the Asia Education Foundation for its continued support for the development of this curriculum.
Of course, Asia literacy is not just about what kids learn in the classroom.
It also means building closer and enduring personal ties between Australia and the region.
This was the motivation behind my announcement last year of the Australia Awards - a new initiative to build the international reputation of our scholarship programs and maximise their benefit to Australia.
This announcement, which I was pleased to make at the National University of Singapore - one of Asia's top ranked universities - was backed by 170 additional Australian scholarships for the region.
In addition, further new scholarships will now be delivered to Asia over coming years as a result of the 2010-11 Budget.
The Australia Awards were inspired by the Colombo Plan, which benefited more than 40,000 people across Asia over 30 years and exported goodwill through an alumni network that endures to this day.
They will build on more than half a million international students who are studying in Australia today.
Last month I was proud to launch a new Australian Centre on China in the World at the ANU - an integrated, world-leading institution for Chinese studies that will serve as a hub for Australian and international scholars.
Mentoring people in the public sector and providing access to a broad community of outstanding scholars, practitioners and the media are crucial to the mission of the new Centre.
We need not only to expand high-level dialogue about China between academics, policy-makers and senior business people.
We must also seek to enhance understanding of China at all levels of Australian society.
Of course, the same principle applies to the other major countries and cultures of our region.
With India, we have built a broad knowledge partnership ranging from collaborative education projects from primary to tertiary level, to joint scientific and technical research - such as a joint solar cooling and mini-grids project between India's Energy and Resources Institute and the CSIRO.
Our joint strategic research fund with India is our largest with any country.
I have said before that Australia needs to do a lot better on Indonesian studies.
In 2008, through AusAID we joined with the Myer Foundation and the Australia-Indonesia Institute to launch a new program to build school-to-school partnerships between Australia and Indonesia.
The BRIDGE program has already brought together 93 schools, 187 teachers and 120,000 students through student exchanges, study tours and online social media such as Facebook, MySpace and Wikispaces.
2008 was a big year for progress on the huge task of strengthening Australia's Asia literacy.
That July, my Malaysian counterpart and I also announced a sister schools program beginning with 12 schools in Malaysia and Victoria.
The program has generated so much interest that it has already doubled in size within two years.
We are also considering the thoughtful recommendations, made in February this year, of a joint Australia-Japan working group on promoting Japanese language education and people-to-people exchanges.
And finally, through institutions such as APEC and the East Asia Summit, we are working to build a regional education community where students and education providers can move between countries with ease.
This Government is committed to deepening our engagement with Asia on all levels - political, economic, defence and people-to-people links.
I am proud of what we have achieved so far.
But I am also the first to acknowledge that overcoming the legacy of Asia-literacy neglect prior to 2007 will take time and resources.
It is, however, something we must invest in - because Asia literacy is an investment in our future.
It is a low-risk, high-yield investment that the Government is pursuing through a diverse portfolio of activities.
I know Sid Myer and Professor Tim Lindsey will say that our investment needs to be far greater.
The work of committed individuals such as Sid and Tim demonstrates that Asia literacy is not a job for government alone.
The diversity of delegates at this conference is testimony to our common stake in building an Australia equipped to meet the opportunities and challenges presented by this new Asian century.
We have representatives from banks and universities.
We have diplomats, health professionals, development experts and artists.
It reveals the true meaning of Asia Pacific community for Australia as a nation.
I wish you success for the remainder of your conference and I look forward to reading your conclusions and recommendations.