They compared it to making flint arrowheads in an era of computers. How else am I meant to interpret that?

It was flint to metalwork and steam engines to computers. All of which can be learnt if you want to specialise in that field. Only the most useful are taught as mandatory and it changes with what is most useful for good reason.

I have no idea what definition of "indigenous" you're using that has you thinking Mandarin is the most widely-spoken Indigenous language in Australia.

zzzzzzzzz. Clearly was indicating that regional-based language learning wouldn't work so you would have to use "most popular languages" which would mean every other language including any European / indigenous / Arabic etc language would be irrelevant to teaching Mandarin in schools.

Do you intentionally strawman and misrepresent arguments because you think actually arguing in good faith is too hard or because you think it's comical?