Dr Weeks wants to push her own speciality and there is nothing wrong with that, but was the Asian Century white paper of any real use? Resounding answer: no.

As with any government attempt to push supply or demand in a direction which appears desirable at the time, the usual result is a mis-allocation of resources. The hard, cold fact which the committee that collated the white paper did not want to face is that many, many more Japanese, Indonesians, Phillipinos, Thai and Malaysians are learing English than Australians are learning their languages, and they have more reason to do so. Making a few more Australians learn those languages will make little difference to engagement in the region.

Then there is the question of whether education should be directed by a committee wish list and commercial considerations, or by personal preferences. Should we direct people away from learning, say, Latin or drama because those subjects do not (usually) lead to productive careers? Obviously we don't.

Dr Weeks has followed her passion and that's good but the white paper is a waste of time. Hopefully it will soon be forgotten

The only sensible part of the whole exercise is to increase our knowledge on the diverse cultures in Asia.

However, it is not government's business to push anyone to learn any language, Asian or non-Asian. It is really wrong to allocate public resources to please a certain section of the voters to strengthen the Labor Party's grip on power.

It is simply stupid to promote the idea of "be part of Asia". Which part? How? Why? To me, it reflects the decline in confidence on the part of Western society, and it also shows the confusing state the West finds itself in. When Western culture becomes soulless while more materialistic, it is only natural for the society to follow the scent of money to wherever it leads, Asia or non-Asia.

It would be a tremendous tragedy to deprive the sense of identity from our younger generations, to make them believe we Australians have no thing to be proud of, nothing worth of remembering, and we are nothing if not Asian.

If you can build a better mousetrap, the world will beat a path to your door –whatever language you speak.

There’s never been a truer axiom.

It would be far wiser to spend the money pigeoned holed for extra language classes on more and better technology/science programs.

"It is simply stupid to promote the idea of "be part of Asia". Which part? How? Why? To me, it reflects the decline in confidence on the part of Western society, and it also shows the confusing state the West finds itself in. When Western culture becomes soulless while more materialistic, it is only natural for the society to follow the scent of money to wherever it leads, Asia or non-Asia."

I agree.

The late Samuel P. Huntington argued in his seminal book ""The Clash of Civilizations" that Australia was a "torn" nation - a nation attempting to redefine its civilisational identity. However, unlike other "torn" nations such as Russia, Turkey and Mexico, Australia's elites were not moving their country closer to the West. Rather, they were attempting to distance themselves from it in favour of Asia.

Huntington wrote that Australia had been a Western nation since its inception but, starting with Paul Keating, Australian political elites had formed the opinion that Australia should "defect from the West, redefine itself as an Asian society, and cultivate close ties with its geographical neighbors." Huntington noted the stupidity of this position, pointing out the Australian public's antipathy towards the imposition of an alien, non-Western identity and the implacable refusal of Asian leaders to accept a European-derived nation within their region.

Huntington predicted that if this trend continued, Australia would inevitably find itself torn between its British "branch office of empire" heritage, as the Anglophobe Paul Keating derisively put it, and the "new white trash of Asia."

Huntington dubbed Australia's delusions "cultural schizophrenia" and concluded that Australia should seek closer ties with its traditional Western allies, rather than engage in an ultimately deleterious attempt to fundamentally reshape its identity in the futile hope of gaining membership into Asian trade blocs.