Australia's Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said on Saturday cultural diversity was the country's strength as he pledged A$25 million ($15.98 million) for students to learn languages other than English, a day after a neo-Nazi disrupted a public gathering in Melbourne.
Albanese, entering the final week of campaigning ahead of a May 3 general election, said if re-elected his government would support 600 community schools that help more than 90,000 students across Australia learn 84 languages.
"Our diversity is our nation’s strength - we’re supporting more Australian families to stay close to their culture with community language schools," Albanese said in a statement, after on Friday labeling as cowardly a neo-Nazi who heckled during an Indigenous ceremony in Melbourne on Anzac Day, a national holiday honoring military veterans.
Australia, where one in two people are either born overseas or have a parent born overseas, has been grappling with a rise in right-wing extremism. In February, it imposed sanctions on far right online network "Terrorgram" following similar moves by Britain and the United States.
Peter Dutton, leader of the conservative National-Liberal coalition, Albanese's main political opponent in the election, also condemned Friday's far-right action, saying "it just has no place in our community, in our society whatsoever".
Early voting for the election began on Tuesday, with Albanese's Labor party holding a slim lead over the coalition. Cost of living and housing affordability are the key issues.
© Thomson Reuters 2025.
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GuruMick
The recent so called anti semitic attacks in Sydney, some months back, including grafitti, now exposed as a hoax, co ordinated by organised criminals with zero ideological anti Jew basis.
A cohort of crims wished to influence downwards their own prosecutions in return for info. about these "faux " attacks , by dobbing in the hapless underlings that had been paid to do the graffiti etc.
In short, the attacks were NOT ideological but were to be used as "bargaining chips " in seeking reduced sentences.
Both NSW Police and Australian Federal Police have confirmed this with news site ABC giving further detail.
Not to say , before this info came out, a lot of Jewish people would have been upset and worried.
Posters who doubt my words can do their own checking via google.
Suggest "Sydney anti semitic attacks exposed as a hoax " to begin your search.
GuruMick
And with these fake attacks, the Police sprung into action....operation Pearl....as did the NSW Parliament, drafting new legislation.
Which begs the question....now the attacks have been found out to be fake, what happens to the new legislation.
Similarly, in the story here, one IDIOT calling out "Boo " at a welcome to country ceremony is more IDIOT than Nazi undercutting our social fabric.
Even Aussies who do not support the symbology of Aborigine "welcome to country " statements would rightly see as the act of a total tool to boo at any stage of an ANZAC Ceremony.
Aussies, there ARE idiots among us, but lets not be hypervigilent about individuals who dont represent mainstream views.
deanzaZZR
I am curious. Which is the most popular second language taught in Australian schools. Please do not tell me it's French. Bahasa Indonesian and Chinese would make the most sense I would think.
Jay
"Diversity is our strength” is the kind of hollow slogan politicians like career pollies like Albanese cling to when they’ve run out of real ideas - and reality. Diversity is only a strength when EVERYONE's on the SAME PAGE, united by shared values, laws, and a sense of national identity.
But thanks to perpetual Uber "Progressive" leftistpolicies, we don't have that anymore so that’s not what’s happening. What we have now is a fractured society of parallel communities, often divided by language, culture, ideology - even allegiance. Throwing $25 million at language schools while Australians struggle with cost-of-living pressures, social disunity, and declining education standards isn’t much help at all. Albo trying to prop up his narrative while ignoring the widespread and real tensions caused by FORCED multiculturalism is not leadership - it’s ridiculous w.oke spin.
True unity comes from shared purpose, not curated “diversity” where no one agrees on what the nation even stands for anymore.
diagonalslip
when I lived in Oz in the 80's, I was always impressed that the non-native English speaking immigrant families, and the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th-generation families of immigrants, not only hung on to their native tongue (and other traditions), but brought up their Italian, Greek, Chinese, and later, Vietnamese kids as bilinguals..... that was cultural diversity, before it became a catchphrase. I'd be surprised if those cultural habits have been abandoned, and wonder as to the need to teach in schools.
and I don't see how teaching other languages to English-speaking kids has anything to do with cultural diversity. also, I feel sure that Spanish French Italian Russian Japanese and other languages are anyway taught within he school system.
sounds like more political piffle to me.....
gsa
this is what the article is about and Australian PM is rightfully taking a stance against that crime. But as usual, given how diverse JT readers are, I was expecting readers who are more aligned with Neo-nazi to come forward as they are plenty among JT readers. Not disappointed, see below:
For some reason that I will likely never understand, Japan (another completely foreign country and culture to them) attracts them.