The SBS Language Services Review risks overlooking a fundamental reality, that Italian Australians in previous generations were pressured to abandon their language. The proposed criteria for rethinking SBS emphasise population figures, English proficiency and recent migration. But statistics cannot measure historical discrimination, ageing or the continuing need for Australian news in Italian.
Italian Australians are the most rapidly ageing migrant community in this country. For many older people, Italian-language radio provides vital access to information about healthcare, government services, elections and everyday Australian life. Why should someone who arrived sixty years ago have less need than someone who arrived sixty days ago?
Younger migrants often have opportunities to learn English through education, employment and language classes. Visa requirements are rather stringent these days. Older people can learn too, but age-related changes, health conditions and fewer opportunities to practise can make acquiring fluency harder. Essential information must remain accessible regardless.
For decades, Italian migrants faced prejudice and pressure to assimilate. Children were discouraged from speaking Italian, while parents adopted English to protect them from discrimination. These attitudes persisted in various forms until a few years ago, when occasionally people used to say to me: “speak English, mate!”
This is why, perhaps, SBS should help repair such lasting historical damage, not use declining home-language figures to justify reducing services.
To this we should add that without Australian-produced Italian broadcasting, older listeners may turn increasingly to television and radio from Italy. Those services report primarily on Italian affairs, not Australian laws, policies, healthcare or community developments. Linguistic isolation is likely to have come civic isolation.
Supporting emerging communities is necessary, but it must not come at the expense of established migrants and a language once suppressed should not be marginalised again by the public broadcaster created to serve the country, not migration
