After providing a brief general framework for language policy and planning, this article examines the case of language policy and planning in Australia with a particular focus on how one of the elements in that framework, prestige planning, might contribute to successful planning implementation, thereby adding to our more general understanding of how language planning operates. It is argued that language-in-education planning in Australia, which has been the major vehicle for improvements in language teaching and learning over the last 25 years, has contributed to both the prestige and the spread of additional language teaching in the country. Thus, while it may not be generally recognised, without the receptive goals emphasised by prestige planning, language planning's productive goals would be much less likely to be achieved. (Contains 1 figure, 1 table, and 7 notes.)