FORUM OF ITALO-AUSTRALIAN PARLIAMENTARIANS

The Hon. CARMEL ZOLLO (15:36): Today I would like to place on the record the work of the Forum of Italo-Australian Parliamentarians, which I attended in Canberra in early April. From memory, the forum was established in 2007 as an initiative of the Hon. Tony Piccolo MP. It has a multipartisan membership across all states and the federal parliament and seeks to promote and advance better economic, cultural and educational relationships between Australia and Italy.

The forum last month was hosted by the Hon. Vicki Dunne MLA, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly in the ACT, and the honourable Speaker has Italian heritage going back to the 1800s in New South Wales. The forum provides an opportunity for members of Italian heritage to discuss and report on common issues as they affect their constituencies. Amongst the issues discussed at last month's forum, in particular, as they related to South Australia, were the Italian language, its support in the curriculum, loss of resources built up from the Italian consul's office, loss of the education officer from the consulate office and the uncertainty of the consul's office itself in Adelaide.

The agenda also included discussion in relation to the working holiday visa agreement between Australia and Italy, discussion in relation to reinstatement of Italian citizenship, and the method of payment of Italian pensions under reciprocal social security arrangements. The needs of our aged are always high on the agenda as well. The issue of higher education and training between the European Union and Australia was also discussed, and I will probably take the opportunity at another time to talk about the good work being undertaken in our Department of the Premier and Cabinet in relation to education and research exchanges.

The forum agenda is a formal one where jurisdictions report on the main issues facing their electorates, as well as sometimes taking the opportunity to visit electorates. Community leaders from that particular jurisdiction were also invited to join us. Without any doubt, the forum members' visit to the Yarralumla Primary School was one of the best examples I have ever witnessed of the importance placed on the learning of languages in Australia and, obviously in this case, Italian.

The school has a focus on three special areas—languages, art and sustainability. The entire school is taught in a bilingual manner: the students spend 2½ days a week being taught in Italian and 2½ days a week being taught in English. I am aware that Canberra has similar schools focusing on other languages. It was a delight to see the students so happy and fluent speaking either language and not just being greeted in Italian but generally conversing in Italian, whether it was to discuss an arm injury a child was carrying that day or where we had come from.

I was interested to hear and take part in the discussions on the working holiday program. During the first term of being elected to this parliament, I moved a motion to encourage the federal government to sign an agreement with Italy for them to come on board with a reciprocal program, and I was pleased to see the program subsequently commence.

Indeed, it was Italy that was dragging its heels, so to speak, as there appeared to be concern that hordes of young Aussies would be going over to Italy to holiday and work and take jobs from young Italians. Of course, that did not happen, but what has now happened with the global financial crisis is that Australia is welcoming some 9,000 young Italians as part of that program. The topic came up as some of the jurisdictions shared their experiences concerning the work experiences of these young people.

In the absence of the Italian Ambassador to Australia, the Head of Mission from the Embassy attended to represent the Ambassador, as well as hosting the members at the Italian Embassy. Several communications were relayed to members from the Ambassador and discussion centred around issues raised.

I believe the forum plays an important role in advocating for closer links and better services and resources for Italo-Australians who have settled in Australia from both the Australian and the Italian governments and, of course, seeks to add value to the work of organisations rather than duplicating those excellent efforts by the members of the community.