Speaker 1: Good morning.
Speaker 2: You're on the air with Lauren Clinty as well.
Speaker 3: Now, the other day I was out on Chapel Street
Speaker 3: with some girlfriends going out for dinner and as we left,
Speaker 3: I saw something that got my attention and it was
Speaker 3: a vendor for The Big Issue. And I've always loved
Speaker 3: buying The Big Issue. And if you don't know exactly
Speaker 3: what the Big Issue is, we'll go into it in
Speaker 3: a minute. But if most of my girlfriends that I
Speaker 3: was with said, what is the Big Issue?
Speaker 4: How does it work?
Speaker 3: And I was trying to explain to them it's this
Speaker 3: amazing magazine. It's been around for a really long time,
Speaker 3: but the way it works and operates, I think is
Speaker 3: just such an important pillar of our community. So I
Speaker 3: really wanted to get the guys in here this morning
Speaker 3: to explain to Melbourne just how important The Big Issue
Speaker 3: is to our society and to our community. So this
Speaker 3: morning we are joined by Big Issue vendor Chris. Morning, Chris,
Speaker 3: and the Big Issue editor Amy Morning. Amy. Hi.
Speaker 5: Firstly, thank you for coming in well, thanks for having us.
Speaker 2: And Chris is wearing his best. He's going to try
Speaker 2: and flow this a magazine. That's right.
Speaker 3: You might have seen these men and women around because
Speaker 3: you wear this very bright high these vest, You're hard
Speaker 3: to miss in that criz. Exactly how long have you
Speaker 3: been selling the Big Issue?
Speaker 4: I have been selling the Big Issue since twenty eighteen,
Speaker 4: and I've got involved because of my father.
Speaker 3: And Amy. How long have you been the editor?
Speaker 5: I've been the editor almost nine years.
Speaker 3: For people don't understand the concept behind the Big Issue,
Speaker 3: can you explain it to us please?
Speaker 5: The Big Issue is a nonprofit social enterprise, So vendors
Speaker 5: buy the mag for four fifty, they sell it for
Speaker 5: nine dollars, so the vendors earn four dollars fifty for
Speaker 5: every magazine. Soul. That's the social enterprise part of it.
Speaker 2: So that's the actual person we're buying it off is
Speaker 2: getting the money directly.
Speaker 5: But every time you buy a Big Issue, it's really
Speaker 5: supporting the person who is your boy, right Frum. We
Speaker 5: turned twenty nine this year this month. Wow, we started
Speaker 5: in Melbourne back in nineteen ninety six.
Speaker 3: Feels like a very Melbourne thing. I actually didn't realize
Speaker 3: it was all around the country.
Speaker 5: Yeah, it is. We picked up the idea from the UK,
Speaker 5: so there are something like ninety street papers like ours,
Speaker 5: all around the world now, but yeah, it's one of
Speaker 5: those things that started in Melbourne. It's now all around
Speaker 5: the country and we have had about seven and eight
Speaker 5: thousand people get jobs through the Big Issue.
Speaker 2: I just love knowing that when I buy the magazine,
Speaker 2: I'm talking to the person who's actually going to benefit.
Speaker 3: From it, and that's what's so great about it. I
Speaker 3: remember when I was at school, we'd go into the
Speaker 3: city and I'd always seen see the same guy that
Speaker 3: I will buy The Big Issue from it. Even when
Speaker 3: you can tap now because it used to be a
Speaker 3: lot more cash base. You can tap and you get
Speaker 3: a little notification on your phone of who your vendors
Speaker 3: who sold it as well, because the vendors are pretty special.
Speaker 3: Vendors for the Big Issue come from a wide range
Speaker 3: of experiences including homelessness, mental illness and long term unemployment,
Speaker 3: intellectual and physical disability, drug and alcohol dependency, or family breakdown.
Speaker 1: Chris, how does this help you well.
Speaker 4: As a vendor? It helps me financially, but it also
Speaker 4: helps me interact with the community and working for the
Speaker 4: Big Issue brings me back on to the main page,
Speaker 4: whether that be free selling, but also free selling. I've
Speaker 4: got opportunities, which inside the Big Issue is I'm now
Speaker 4: in their education enterprise called the Big Issue classrooms, and
Speaker 4: with that I go in. I tell my lived experience
Speaker 4: of having a disability as I'm vision impaired and also
Speaker 4: be and also being homeless at a time. I was
Speaker 4: homeless when I was seventeen, and I'm able to share
Speaker 4: that experience with school groups and I can relate to
Speaker 4: them because of the age I became homeless.
Speaker 3: So you were vision impaired and homeless at seventeen, yes, wow?
Speaker 3: And when did you start selling the Big Issue?
Speaker 4: I started selling The Big Issue when I was eighteen
Speaker 4: in Canberra. At the time, I was living with my
Speaker 4: now wife up there, and I got involved because my father,
Speaker 4: who's the current Big Issue vendor down here in Melbourne,
Speaker 4: who sells in Burke Street.
Speaker 3: Oh, he's got prime.
Speaker 2: Does everyone get their spot?
Speaker 3: Well?
Speaker 4: So we ring up to get our spots. So we
Speaker 4: book a day before and we say we want to
Speaker 4: work here if it's available. So I work at Southern
Speaker 4: Cross station on the burk Street Bridge and I'm up
Speaker 4: there from seven to nine generally, and you know, I
Speaker 4: ring up and get that spot every day. And because
Speaker 4: I've been working there for a while now every couple
Speaker 4: of days I know they know I'm going to be there,
Speaker 4: so they pre booked me.
Speaker 1: So what sort of response do you get, Chris, And
Speaker 1: how heartwarming is that response?
Speaker 4: Well, I get really good responses from people, and that's
Speaker 4: the positive thing we get at it. It's not just
Speaker 4: about selling a magazine. We're being interacted in the community,
Speaker 4: and the community sees us out there. For myself, I
Speaker 4: have people that come up to me every day and
Speaker 4: talk that may not buy a bag, but they're coming
Speaker 4: out there to talk to me and interact and they
Speaker 4: see me out there. And I get supporters from people
Speaker 4: like my local coffee shop down at Southern Cross because
Speaker 4: they see me out there working. I'm not just sitting
Speaker 4: at home doing that.
Speaker 2: No, exactly.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Amy When it comes to the magazine, there's a lot
Speaker 2: of magazines these days that aren't around because a lot
Speaker 2: of them were just your trashy, celebrity gossip bags. What's
Speaker 2: the sort of stuff you get in the big issue.
Speaker 5: Well, we tell stories that are sort of arts and culture.
Speaker 5: The next one is about Jaws turning fifty. The current
Speaker 5: edition has a story about homelessness and housing. The most
Speaker 5: important thing is that we also tell the stories of
Speaker 5: the people who sell the Big Issue, and so it's
Speaker 5: really important for us to make sure that we platform
Speaker 5: voices that are not necessarily heard in mainstream media. So
Speaker 5: we have a story about a vendor in every edition,
Speaker 5: a vendor's write for us as well. We have poems
Speaker 5: and stories and artwork from vendors in every edition as well.
Speaker 3: Hey, Chris, what's a good day at the office for
Speaker 3: the Big Issue for you? How many are you selling?
Speaker 4: I average around I average around twenty magazines a day, Okay,
Speaker 4: but that's an average. I could one day, I could
Speaker 4: sell thirty. One day, I could sell one. Every day
Speaker 4: is different, and that's the beauty of But it's not
Speaker 4: just that, you know, and we're running our own small business,
Speaker 4: mind you.
Speaker 3: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 4: So it's not like we're adherent to you know, Pacific hours.
Speaker 4: And that's for me. I like the routine of being
Speaker 4: up going to work. I travel two hours go to
Speaker 4: work every day. So I travel in from the Gips
Speaker 4: and from Liatroe Valley, I travel to Melbourne. Take me
Speaker 4: two hours. I work for two hours and then I
Speaker 4: go home. If I don't have a classroom to go
Speaker 4: to and you know that's I'm committed to that because
Speaker 4: that's my work, that's mine nine to five.
Speaker 2: You must feel a lot of independence out of it
Speaker 2: as well.
Speaker 4: Exactly. I feel not just independence, but pride about what
Speaker 4: I do and sharing my story, sharing other vendors stories
Speaker 4: as well through selling to maybe Chris.
Speaker 1: Where would you be without the Big Issue?
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know. Like I was lost when I
Speaker 4: started working for the Big Issue. And I would say,
Speaker 4: I've found my place. I've found the thing that's called
Speaker 4: to me.
Speaker 3: That's so cool to hear, it's amazing.
Speaker 2: Where's the sweet spot in Melbourne? Where's the spot everything?
Speaker 3: The guy on Chapel Street the other night was doing
Speaker 3: very well, Jeffrey.
Speaker 2: What's the primo location?
Speaker 4: I will say Burke Street Mall. We have a lot
Speaker 4: of vendors that's all around there. Teresa is one, my
Speaker 4: father David, he's one out there. There's a lot more.
Speaker 4: I can't think if there's a lot of vendors that's
Speaker 4: all around there anyway, but.
Speaker 1: This is the beauty of it. You get to know
Speaker 1: your vendor as well. On Glen Parry Road, there's a
Speaker 1: bloke who sits there with his blue heeler, is it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: just outside the Westpac Bank, and you know, go up
Speaker 1: and get to Patty's dog, sagurday to him, see how
Speaker 1: he's going. It's like a check in and then he
Speaker 1: checks in on me as well. It's there's a beautiful
Speaker 1: story and relationship that a company has the sale of this, and.
Speaker 3: I can't recommend it enough. If you do see a
Speaker 3: Big Issue vendor out, go and say hello. The magazine
Speaker 3: is a great read as well. I always get it
Speaker 3: whenever I see it, which is why we wanted to
Speaker 3: talk about it today.
Speaker 2: Ed your kids about it too.
Speaker 3: They're nine dollars and the vendor personally gets fifty percent
Speaker 3: of that, so you get four dollars fifty per magazine.
Speaker 3: But you'll meet some really great people with some amazing
Speaker 3: stories to share as well. I mean, you must be
Speaker 3: so proud of all of these vendors who work for
Speaker 3: the Big Issue.
Speaker 5: Yeah, I really I have a long relationship with a
Speaker 5: lot of our vendors. We have vendors who have worked
Speaker 5: for the Big Issue for almost twenty nine years and
Speaker 5: some that come for a couple of months and use
Speaker 5: it as a stepping stone to go on to other
Speaker 5: things too, But as you said about the community around
Speaker 5: the big issue vendors, that's the big key thing. If
Speaker 5: you're a vendor that's selling at Preston Markets every weekend,
Speaker 5: you really build up that community around you and there's
Speaker 5: some really amazing stories that come out of that.
Speaker 2: Well, get out and support your local big issue vendors.
Speaker 2: Chris and Amy, thanks so much for coming in. Guys,
Speaker 2: thank you very much.
Speaker 3: Jason, Lauren l wake up feeling good following them on
Speaker 3: the socials.