To judge by Cory Bernardi’s name he is of Italian origin, which may give a hint to his evident sensitivity to considerations that escape certain dangerous unfortunates who almost certainly know no other language than English.
This is speculation, but even the term “virtue signaling” becomes less opaque if one knows Latin or Italian and know that “vir” is Latin for “man”. Australia is now importing population from almost everywhere and if everyone starts insisting on their “native language rights” we are back at the Tower of Babel.
Portuguese and Spanish imperialists had no qualms about conflating linguistic and religious considerations. It is only since the French got involved in the colonial (and enslaving) project that the idea gained ground that colonialists should be “on the side of the natives”. A knowledge of Latin (or indeed Italian) helps one understand the English language but if one really wants to go “back to the roots” one will learn Greek, modern Greek preferably because one cannot speak with the dead. There are good reasons for Australians to know something about the origins of human habitation on the Australian content, but for the purposes of politics, going back to the roots means going back to the foundation of the New South Wales Legislative Council https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qb5kT5XdEKE&t=1s, from shortly after the defeat of Napoleon (1823), and not long before the founding of the modern Greek state on 26th January (!) 1828. That, in conjunction with the introduction of modern Greek as compulsory second language in Australian schools will help to counteract the dangers of Islamization of Australia, without encouraging bigotry. https://cairnsnews.org/2017/02/12/exit-right-cory-bernardi/