100 signatures reached
To: Minister Aly
A Unified Call for a Stronger Language Services Workforce
Dear Minister Aly,
As language services professionals and stakeholders from across Australia, we write to you with a shared commitment to delivering quality, sustainable language support to our communities.
We acknowledge that the NAATI Endorsement model marks a positive step for the sector. However, endorsement alone cannot address the workforce crisis. A mandatory, enforceable industry code is the essential next step, lifting pay and conditions, safeguarding professional standards, and ensuring a stable, skilled workforce.
This is not the proposal of any one organisation. It is a call for unity across the profession.
A strong workforce code would:
As language services professionals and stakeholders from across Australia, we write to you with a shared commitment to delivering quality, sustainable language support to our communities.
We acknowledge that the NAATI Endorsement model marks a positive step for the sector. However, endorsement alone cannot address the workforce crisis. A mandatory, enforceable industry code is the essential next step, lifting pay and conditions, safeguarding professional standards, and ensuring a stable, skilled workforce.
This is not the proposal of any one organisation. It is a call for unity across the profession.
A strong workforce code would:
- Guarantee fair pay, job security, and clear protections for interpreters and translators.
- Stop the race to the bottom by setting enforceable minimum standards across all providers.
- Ensure accountability and quality for clients and communities, while making the profession attractive and sustainable for practitioners.
We urge you to join us in supporting the principle of a broad-based workforce code, and to commit to working with all stakeholders to shape the best way forward, together, as an industry.
We look forward to your partnership and leadership on this important reform.
Why is this important?
Interpreter shortages are leaving tens of thousands without vital language support every year. The cost isn’t just economic; delays and errors mean real damage: mistrials in court, misdiagnoses in hospitals, patients left uninformed, families at risk. These gaps cost nearly $900 million annually, money lost from hospitals, schools and essential public services. When basic communication breaks down, lives are harmed, justice is denied, and trust in public services erodes. Australia can’t afford business as usual; change is overdue.
The challenges facing interpreters and translators affect communities, service providers, and professionals across Australia. The campaign is nationwide in scope and focused on lifting standards, protections, and workforce stability for the entire sector, regardless of location.
The challenges facing interpreters and translators affect communities, service providers, and professionals across Australia. The campaign is nationwide in scope and focused on lifting standards, protections, and workforce stability for the entire sector, regardless of location.