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Speaker 1: Joining me on the line right now is Alice Branco,

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Speaker 1: who is indeed the director of the Casuarina Childcare Center.

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Speaker 2: Good morning to you, Alice.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Kate and listeners.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for your time this morning. Alice.

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Speaker 1: Obviously I'm assuming Casuarina Childcare Center is one of the

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Speaker 1: centers that's impacted today.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, we are closing off today, but many other centers

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Speaker 3: will do the same, and we still have people resisting

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Speaker 3: for today.

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Speaker 1: Yeah. Right, And so Alice, we heard earlier that a

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Speaker 1: number of childcare workers are going to be going on strike.

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Speaker 1: How many of your crew are going to be striking?

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Speaker 3: All our crew from my center will be striking, Yeah,

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Speaker 3: but many other centers are joining us in this afternoon

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Speaker 3: at three o'clock, So it's going to be massive.

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Speaker 2: And so the TSAVO at three clock is it? Are there?

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Speaker 1: We're exactly going to be meeting, and what is the

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Speaker 1: message going to be for the federal government?

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Speaker 3: Right? The message first, we're going to be joining here

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Speaker 3: in our in the area at brashaw Terrace in the

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Speaker 3: center's car park. But the message is that early childhood

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Speaker 3: sector is in crisis and we need real reform for

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Speaker 3: the sector.

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Speaker 1: For good.

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Speaker 3: At the moment, we have educators leaving the sector in

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Speaker 3: droves due to burnout, overloaded, underpay, undervalue. And we and

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Speaker 3: the children are one of the most important members of

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Speaker 3: our community. They need to have quality care. They need

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Speaker 3: to have qualified staff taking care of their education while

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Speaker 3: their parents are working. And there are three messages that

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Speaker 3: we are sending to the Albanese government. First, tell us

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Speaker 3: why we should stay in the sector, because we, like

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Speaker 3: I said before, we underpay, undervalue. We feel that there

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Speaker 3: is no respect for our profession at the moment, and

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Speaker 3: we deserve that respect for the work that we do.

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Speaker 3: So we need to be value because ninety five percent

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Speaker 3: of the human brain develops in the first five years

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Speaker 3: of their lives, and this is what we are doing

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Speaker 3: in our centers, including not only brand development, but the

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Speaker 3: motor skill, creativity, communications, social emotional wellbeing, et cetera. And

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Speaker 3: so we need to be recognized not only for the

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Speaker 3: job we do, but for the qualifications that we have.

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Speaker 3: And we are like you know, we earn a third

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Speaker 3: less than our counterpartners in the education, So we need

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Speaker 3: to be The government need to have us in the system.

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Speaker 3: And I'll tell you what which is not very well spoken.

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Speaker 3: Yet and these need to be dissimilated throughout the country.

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Speaker 3: Is that put children before profits. Stop profiting of our children.

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Speaker 3: The corporation, the offshore corporations are taking over this area

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Speaker 3: because there's billions of money involved in that. So they're

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Speaker 3: profiting from our parents, from our staff, because our staff

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Speaker 3: are pages like twenty four dollars an hour and misery wages.

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Speaker 3: Our parents pay huge fees to have their kids that

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Speaker 3: at the center so they can go to work and

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Speaker 3: participate in this economy, as well as the all the

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Speaker 3: subsidies that they get from the government. Let's say the

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Speaker 3: shock subsidy goes off shore, it's not invested in the

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Speaker 3: health and education of our children. Here, he goes off

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Speaker 3: sure to fun, lovish life stuff of rich people. And

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Speaker 3: this has to stop. That's why many centers are closing down.

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Speaker 3: Rooms are closing down. Parents can't go back to work,

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Speaker 3: and the government need to start somewhere. We need to

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Speaker 3: stop with it.

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Speaker 2: Well and look at the community.

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Speaker 3: As you know, and community deserves good care for their children.

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Speaker 2: They both certainly do.

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Speaker 1: And look, my children are no longer in childcare, they're

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Speaker 1: obviously past that age. But I think any parent or

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Speaker 1: any care give that's had a child in child care

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Speaker 1: knows just how important your jobs are.

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Speaker 2: Alice.

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Speaker 1: How tough has it been over the last couple of years,

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Speaker 1: and how tough is it right now to get people

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Speaker 1: to fill those jobs.

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Speaker 3: Okay, I've been in the sector for three decades and

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Speaker 3: I've been involved in the Big Step campaign as well

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Speaker 3: as now the Tribal fab campaign. I've been involved for

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Speaker 3: more than a decade in this comp and things are

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Speaker 3: getting worse because qualified staff are living in draws. We

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Speaker 3: don't want anyone from the streets to walk in and

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Speaker 3: care for our kids education. We want kids to have

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Speaker 3: good nutrition at the centers that they can grow up healthy.

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Speaker 2: Absolutely.

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Speaker 3: You know so many issues that we are facing at

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Speaker 3: the moment, and all to do with wages. Early educators,

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Speaker 3: early child de educators prefer to go and work in

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Speaker 3: orders or course they just pay more money to feed

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Speaker 3: their families than a in an early child education setting.

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Speaker 2: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: Well, and this is the thing we can't afford to

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Speaker 1: lose these workers that do a phenomenal job in terms

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Speaker 1: of caring and educating our children. So, Alice, the steps

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Speaker 1: are this afternoon. Obviously, you've got that meeting or that,

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Speaker 1: you know, that protest that is going to be happening.

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Speaker 2: Any idea how many people are you going to.

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Speaker 3: Get there at the moment, I haven't haven't got all

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Speaker 3: the numbers yet, but there will be a big crowd

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Speaker 3: because as I said, you know, some people that wanted

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Speaker 3: to come in, they've been threatened that they will lose

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Speaker 3: their jobs or if they take a sick leave, they

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Speaker 3: might not even get paid. So those many others like that,

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Speaker 3: they have called me and say they will be with

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Speaker 3: us in spirit. But I know of many centers that

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Speaker 3: are coming and join us, and many others. So we'll

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Speaker 3: see what happens. And we have community members and parents

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Speaker 3: joining us.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know, and I think that there will

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Speaker 1: be a lot of people in the community. They do

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Speaker 1: feel as though they are paying awfully high fees obviously

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Speaker 1: to send their kids to childcare, and they would like

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Speaker 1: to see more of those fees going to the people

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Speaker 1: that are caring for the.

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Speaker 3: Kids, and not only there. You know, like the money

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Speaker 3: should stay here in Australia. We have to stop with

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Speaker 3: all those offshore corporations coming in and sucking the money. Sorry,

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Speaker 3: I am using that word from our parents, from our

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Speaker 3: stuff from our children to subsidize daily reach lifestyle overseas. No,

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Speaker 3: the money should stay here for the people in Australia,

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Speaker 3: for our communities, for the health and education of our children,

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Speaker 3: to pay stuff in locators to stay in the sector

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Speaker 3: so our children can grow to become good leaders in

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Speaker 3: our community.

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Speaker 1: Well, Alice, thank you very much for your time today.

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Speaker 1: I'll be really interested to hear how it all goes.

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Speaker 2: But I really appreciate you having a chat with us

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Speaker 2: this morning.

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Speaker 3: Thank you very much for having me. And I would

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Speaker 3: like to do an appeal please the crashes that we

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Speaker 3: are facing. It's not only us educated responsibility. We asking parents,

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Speaker 3: we asking communities to support us for the next generations

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Speaker 3: that are coming from the parents that were going to

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Speaker 3: be the next parents of the future, because we have

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Speaker 3: to care about all of this.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, Alice, thank you for your time this morning.

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Speaker 2: I really appreciate it.

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Speaker 3: You're most all come to thank you for having me.

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Speaker 2: Thank you