The front line was a church hall in Cabramatta the whole time

SMH · Rob Harris · Saturday 2 May 2026

The front line was a church hall in Cabramatta the whole time

Universities have let Southeast Asian language enrolments collapse while migrant-run weekend schools carry the load — and Labor's now calling that a strategic pivot.

Universities let Indonesian wither on the vine while migrant mums in church halls kept Bahasa alive on weekends with biscuits and goodwill. Now Canberra's discovered the weekend schools and calls it a strategic pivot. Forty years of cultural cringe outsourced to volunteers, and the reward is a press release calling them the front line.

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