A Labor politician from south-west Sydney insists 90 per cent of constituents in his largely foreign-born electorate speak English.
Guy Zangari made the declaration after his party’s former federal leader Mark Latham called for immigrants to lose welfare payments within 12 months if they fail to learn the language.
The member for Fairfield insisted almost everyone in his multi-racial electorate spoke English, even though Mr Latham struggled to find many who did.
‘I really do not think that there is a problem with English,’ Mr Zangari told A Current Affair.
The Labor member for Fairfield insists 90 per cent of people in his area actually spoke English
Mark Latham says the lack of English skills in south-west Sydney is leading to ethnic enclaves
‘I would say a high percentage of people would speak English, say between 80 to 90 per cent of people would speak English.’
Mr Zangari also accused Mr Latham of proposing a ‘very, very cruel’ policy.
‘This is just ridiculous. I say to Mark Latham, maybe he should speak Assyrian in the next 12 months and see how goes,’ he told the Nine Network program.
In a video for Rebel Media, Mr Latham returned to Fairfield, in Sydney’s south-west, and asked native Arabic and Vietnamese speakers on the streets if they spoke English, only to find nearly all of them didn’t.
He was repeating an exercise done six months earlier, only to encounter the same response.
Mr Latham, a former member of Labor’s dominant right faction, has proposed drastic action to address the issue of ethnic enclaves in a suburb where only 17 per cent of its residents spoke English only at home, in the 2016 Census.
This woman (centre) agreed with Mark Latham’s idea of cutting off welfare after 12 months
‘After 12 months of welfare support, a decent period, people should be expected to pass a basic English test,’ he said in a video for Rebel Media this week.
‘If they can’t speak English after 12 months then cut off the welfare.’
Mr Latham was the federal member for nearby Werriwa, from 1994 to 2005, and argues the lack of English skills is causing social isolation in that Labor-voting part of Sydney.
‘What you would find with that policy, of course, is that people would get off their backside, learn English and we’d have a chance, a chance of having proper integration instead of ethnic enclaves in places like Fairfield,’ he said outside a Centrelink office.
One older woman agreed with Mr Latham’s idea when asked if that was a fair proposition.
‘Well, I do because I feel that pension and all the things are not equal for everybody and I’m talking from experience,’ she said.
Mr Latham, who is now a member of the libertarian Liberal Democrats, has slammed the area’s state and federal Labor politicians for their reluctance to address the lack of English skills, for fear of offending ethnic minority voters.
Earlier this year, he lodged a petition with Cumberland Council in Sydney’s west after it put up a curtain at Auburn Ruth Everuss Aquatic Centre to shield Muslim women.