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Speaker 1: We all remember this jingle and the man who is

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Speaker 1: the CEO of State Swim is Greg Reece, and he

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Speaker 1: joins Lisa and I in the studio. Now, good morning, Greg, morning.

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Speaker 2: If you had a dollar for every time you've heard

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Speaker 2: that so Greg, we did recently learn that Dudley Way

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Speaker 2: has the worst drownding statistics in the country. You must

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Speaker 2: find that statistic horrifying.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely agree and versy. Thank you for bringing to attention.

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Speaker 3: I think using this as a platform to bring awareness

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Speaker 3: is fantastic. Yes, it is a worrying stat and bringing

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Speaker 3: it to front of mind, particularly coming into summer, is great.

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Speaker 3: The problem is that it's not a single demographic. Nice

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Speaker 3: to come from a range of areas well.

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Speaker 2: I was surprised at the demographic being more older people. Yes,

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Speaker 2: I thought they're the ones that would have it, you

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Speaker 2: know done years ago.

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Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, that would have done State Swim all through

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Speaker 1: their lives and sung along to that jingle and done

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Speaker 1: the you know, done all the programs and correct. Does

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Speaker 1: it seem that we forget perhaps perhaps people.

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Speaker 3: Have missed out on that opportunity as well though, And

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Speaker 3: you know that's why we do have an adults program

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Speaker 3: that we're continuously looking to grow and extend to offer

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Speaker 3: that for people that may have missed that opportunity earlier on. Yeah,

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Speaker 3: but yeah, the stats are certainly worrying a lot of people.

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Speaker 2: I'm sorry, I was going to say a lot of

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Speaker 2: people might think that State Swim is just for kids,

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Speaker 2: but it is for adults too.

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Speaker 3: Yes. Yeah, kids make up the majority of our numbers,

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Speaker 3: of course, but we do offer adults program as well.

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Speaker 1: So what kind of programs you know, you say it's

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Speaker 1: for all ages, but what specifically kind of programs does

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Speaker 1: State Swim offer for those interested in taking it up?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Sure, So our core program is obviously, I learned

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Speaker 3: to swim, and that's our goal there is to get

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Speaker 3: kids to swim or anyone partaking in that program to

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Speaker 3: swim four hundred meters. We see that as a benchmark

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Speaker 3: of both safety and confidence, and they'll give them confidence

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Speaker 3: in the water to undertake all aquatic activities that we

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Speaker 3: see in Australia. So that's our core program. Outside of that,

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Speaker 3: we also have teams or squads, and that's people that

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Speaker 3: want to extend for fitness and continue to develop their

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Speaker 3: stroke adults. As I mentioned, we have programs dedicated to adults,

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Speaker 3: and then we have holiday programs with our swim back

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Speaker 3: so we have their more intensive program five days of

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Speaker 3: intense where we see kids can progress quite quickly in

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Speaker 3: that intensive period. And then we work with in the

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Speaker 3: school sector as well, so we offer intern programs. We

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Speaker 3: work with both private and government schools where other Department

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Speaker 3: of Education will come in and use our facilities to

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Speaker 3: offer those programs, or we will offer our program to

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Speaker 3: more often the private sector. So quite a range of

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Speaker 3: various activities and programs to try to get a broad

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Speaker 3: reach in what we do.

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Speaker 2: When we spoke to Lauren from the Royal Life Saving

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Speaker 2: wa the other day, she talked about the importance of

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Speaker 2: knowing the difference between knowing how to swim and having

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Speaker 2: water safety skills and how they're two different things. Would

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Speaker 2: you agree with that and does State Swim sort of

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Speaker 2: acknowledge that difference.

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Speaker 3: Yes, absolutely, they're all laugh. I think they have a

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Speaker 3: metric around fifty meters and two minutes of floating as

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Speaker 3: their measure for safety, and we take that, but we

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Speaker 3: also look to extend that. That's why our extends further

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Speaker 3: to four hundred meters. We think that four hundred meters

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Speaker 3: gives you also confidence. We don't want you just to

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Speaker 3: be safe in the water. We want you to be

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Speaker 3: confident in the water scene and undertake activities. So absolutely

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Speaker 3: having those metrics is a good way of measuring and

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Speaker 3: we extend that further.

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Speaker 1: It was reported and we spoke to the Education Minister

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Speaker 1: about this yesterday, had been reported that there was a

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Speaker 1: shortage recently in swimming instructors. Has that improved or is

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Speaker 1: it still a concern for you? How are you sort

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Speaker 1: of handling that obstacle.

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Speaker 3: Yes, across the industry. You know, the people that I

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Speaker 3: talked to that are also in the industry struggling continue

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Speaker 3: to struggle. There is a shortage and it's a casual workforce,

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Speaker 3: so to juggling rosters, juggling diaries to fit, it adds

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Speaker 3: to that complex challenge. We're fortunate it states from that

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Speaker 3: our instructors, you know that they're fantastic. They're magnificent. They

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Speaker 3: turn up with great purpose and intent every day. They

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Speaker 3: love what they do, They understand the impact it makes

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Speaker 3: to families, and so we have a great culture and

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Speaker 3: so we tend to attract good staff, which is really fantastic.

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Speaker 3: But notwithstanding that, we still have the problem of recruitment,

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Speaker 3: and we have an ongoing program to try track and

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Speaker 3: maintain that talent. So it's an ongoing issue.

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Speaker 2: What do you find is the sort of the barriers

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Speaker 2: that people say are stopping them from from learning to swim?

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Speaker 2: It is it fear, is it geography, access, cost, cost,

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Speaker 2: It's a range.

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Speaker 3: It's probably those things. Yes, certainly access. We seem to

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Speaker 3: have a belief that people don't like to travel too

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Speaker 3: far to get to a swiming lesson, so having that

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Speaker 3: access to pools and facilities is critical, okay. And then

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Speaker 3: the secondly, of course, as we just discussed there, you

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Speaker 3: need to staff. That's no point having the facility. You

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Speaker 3: need to be able to staff these facilities. So that's

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Speaker 3: from the supply side, and I guess from the demand

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Speaker 3: side there are competing interests. There's cost pressures that all

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Speaker 3: way into why people may not be taking it up,

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Speaker 3: and we are seeing this drop in participation.

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Speaker 2: Having to make choices exactly what the money gets spent on.

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Speaker 3: Correct.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, So the government I did have a sort of

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Speaker 1: a they were investing some money into it. There was

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Speaker 1: a subsidizing I guess is that still ongoing for you guys.

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Speaker 3: The government did run I think they're swim back program

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Speaker 3: subsidized and they also offer sports Active Kids sports vouchers,

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Speaker 3: So those two elements are continuing, certainly sports vouchers so

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Speaker 3: and we do accept people with sports vouchers. That's particular

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Speaker 3: families that may be struggling a bit more. So they

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Speaker 3: are continuing. They did have a subsidized swim back program

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Speaker 3: that that I think booked out pretty quickly and was

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Speaker 3: restricted around facilities and instructor.

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Speaker 1: So there were those constraints. Unfortunately that still came came

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Speaker 1: into play. So I guess it's a it's a it's

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Speaker 1: a matter of getting in as early as you can, really,

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Speaker 1: isn't it Looking in as early and now is a

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Speaker 1: good time.

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Speaker 3: All the heat hits, this is when we see that

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Speaker 3: the increase in risk and increase in drowning, So right

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Speaker 3: before summers the perfect time to get back in and

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Speaker 3: get the kids into into programs.

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Speaker 2: I'm just having a look at the website now. It's

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Speaker 2: very comprehensive and you're all over the place, so I

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Speaker 2: suggest people have a look at stateswim dot com, dot AU.

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Speaker 2: Thank you so much for joining us this morning. Thank

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Speaker 2: you and helping us just you know, not raise awareness,

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Speaker 2: but remind people to be aware of, you know what,

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Speaker 2: we're girt by sea. We've got to be able.

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Speaker 1: To say, not taking into account the rivers and the

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Speaker 1: pools and the dams exactly exactly we all like to

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Speaker 1: jump into.

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Speaker 2: We live in the water because it's hot, we do.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Greg, Thank you, Thank you.

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Speaker 1: Greg