Alongside her vision for a \u201cmonocultural\u201d Australia<\/a>, Hanson cited the 2021 census, saying that \u201cone in four people, 23%, speak a language other than English at home, the most common being Mandarin and Arabic\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cHow can you generate social cohesion if people can\u2019t speak the language? In that same census, 872,000 people self-reported<\/a> as speaking English \u2018not well\u2019 or \u2018not at all\u2019,\u201d Hanson said in her National Press Club address.<\/p>\n Those 872,000 people represent just 3.4% of Australia\u2019s population, and include more than 100,000 babies and toddlers.<\/p>\n Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n For Razi, who speaks Farsi, Dari and English, the rhetoric undermines the contributions of migrants, who \u201cbring different skills, different values, whether they know English or not\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cNot everyone has the opportunity to learn English in their countries. When they come here, they can learn English, just like myself, and they can contribute back to the community,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n In 2015, Razi studied a six-month intensive English language course for recently arrived migrants in Melbourne before beginning high school classes.<\/p>\n \u201cIt helped me to get to know the Australian culture and how things work, and also to be more confident with my English,\u201d she recalls.<\/p>\n Razi hopes to use her law degree to help others. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins\/The Guardian<\/p>\n \u201cLearning English is not that difficult. It\u2019s not like flying a jet or something.\u201d<\/p>\n Without the opportunity to study at an intensive language school, Razi says her integration into Australian life would have been difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was also helping me to navigate the system, you know, whether it\u2019s the legal system, the education system, the culture,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n \u201cThose supports are really, really crucial and important for newcomers.\u201d<\/p>\n Razi has worked for a gambling harm prevention program for multicultural communities, where she has used her language skills to help non-English speaking clients.<\/p>\n \u201cA lot of people may not be able to receive the support just because of the language barrier,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n Razi, who became an Australian citizen in 2020, hopes to use her law degree to be a \u201cvoice for the voiceless\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cSeeing a lot of injustice in some other countries towards refugees and towards women, it just fuelled my passion to study law,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n The number of people who spoke a language other than English at home<\/a> on census night in 2021 was 5.6 million, or about 22% of the population, with 72% only speaking English at home<\/a>.<\/p>\n Graph with Census data of languages used at home <\/a><\/p>\n Other than English, the most common languages spoken at home<\/a> were Mandarin (2.7%), Arabic (1.4%), Vietnamese (1.3%), Cantonese (1.2%) and Punjabi (0.9%). Additionally, across Australia there are 167 actively spoken<\/a> First Nations languages.<\/p>\n Prof Catherine Travis, a linguist at the Australian National University, says it\u2019s \u201ca total misconception to assume that allowing other languages to be spoken detracts from social cohesion\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cI would say that it could enhance it, because people feel better received in Australia,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n
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