Mr Laurie Ferguson asked the Prime Minister, upon notice, on 27 March 2003:

(1) Does the Government have a policy on the circumstances in which it would be appropriate to translate Prime Ministerial and Ministerial statements into community languages at taxpayers' expense; if so, what are the details.

(2) What were the reasons behind the Government's decision to translate his parliamentary statement on Iraq into Arabic and Bahasa Indonesian and who initiated such action.

(3) Which Government agency arranged for the translations to be made and what was the cost.

(4) According to the 2001 Census, what proportion of Australians who speak a language other than English at home were recorded as speaking (a) Arabic and (b) Bahasa Indonesian.

(5) On what basis was it decided to translate the speech into these two particular languages and not into other languages.

Mr Howard (Prime Minister) —The answer to the honourable member's question is as follows:

(1) There is no set policy, but translations of Prime Ministerial and Ministerial statements are undertaken when there are compelling reasons on national and community interest grounds for broader community awareness of the content of such statements.

(2) The decision to translate the speech into Arabic reflected the fact that Iraq is an Arabic speaking country and many community groups with an interest in the Iraq issue are Arabic speakers. The translation into Indonesian reflected the fact that Indonesia has the world's largest Muslim population and is one of Australia's nearest neighbours. The action to arrange translation was initiated by my office.

(3) The Translation was arranged by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet with the assistance of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The cost of translation was approximately $176.

(4) (a) Arabic: 209,372 persons (1.1 per cent of the total Australian population)

(b) Indonesian: 38,724 persons (0.2 per cent of the total Australian population).

(5) As per (2) above.