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Speaker 1: As we've just discussed, we know the Northern Territory government

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Speaker 1: have announced that all students are going to have access

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Speaker 1: to a support network in every school with the creation

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Speaker 1: of new roles called student Wellbeing Officers. They're said to

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Speaker 1: be professionals of different backgrounds, with qualifications in fields like

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Speaker 1: youth work, with a high level of experience in working

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Speaker 1: with children. Now fourteen Wellbeing officers are going to be

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Speaker 1: funded as part of a two point eight million dollar program,

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Speaker 1: with nine starting at schools in term three, so essentially today,

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Speaker 1: I believe that is and recruitment almost complete for the

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Speaker 1: others who will commence next year. A further sixty grand

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Speaker 1: has also been earmarked for new scholarship program, a new

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Speaker 1: scholarship program to increase the school counselor workforce by growing

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Speaker 1: our own. Joining me on the line for her take

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Speaker 1: is the former board and former board chair I should

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Speaker 1: say to min Min College and also somebody who we

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Speaker 1: speak to quite a bit actually about different education issues.

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Speaker 2: It is Beverly Ratahi. Good morning to you, Bev.

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Speaker 3: Good morning Katie, Good morning listeners. Yes, Katie, I did

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Speaker 3: catch up with a lot of educators over the last

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Speaker 3: three week break, so I know when I saw this

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Speaker 3: announcement that Phase one starting this term includes Commendment college,

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Speaker 3: I know there will be a lot of happy teachers

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Speaker 3: and hopefully parents and students.

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Speaker 1: How I saying this, I hope so as well. I

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Speaker 1: really hope that it is going to have an impact.

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Speaker 2: BEV.

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Speaker 1: How needed are these well being officers?

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Speaker 3: Oh? Look absolutely now is a perfect No, in a

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Speaker 3: perfect world, we would all have school counselors for every

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Speaker 3: five hundred kids. But to look at that, there's been

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Speaker 3: there is a national shortage, you know, and that's documented

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Speaker 3: by the Australian Education Union did a submission last year

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Speaker 3: and they talk about the national shortage. So you know,

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Speaker 3: if we want to start looking at that, we need

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Speaker 3: to go back to the last decade when hex feeds

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Speaker 3: increased and why that deterred some people from studying these fields. So,

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Speaker 3: you know, it's all very well to say, yes, we

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Speaker 3: keep advertising. The department has been advertising, and it would

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Speaker 3: be the definition of stupidity to keep only doing one

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Speaker 3: thing expecting a different outcome.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I agree, you've got to modify, you've got to

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Speaker 1: change with the times if you're not able to fill

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Speaker 1: the jobs.

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Speaker 3: Right exactly, And so this is a proactive measure. And

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Speaker 3: my experience is that when I was chariting him in college,

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Speaker 3: we actually the board funded the employment of a youth

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Speaker 3: worker to assist because I think that was when then

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Speaker 3: we couldn't there weren't any counselors or we had one,

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Speaker 3: so we employed a youth worker and they were a

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Speaker 3: fantastic additional resource for students and staff, you know. And

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Speaker 3: the devil is in the detail, you know, And I

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Speaker 3: haven't seen the detail. I've only seen the press relief.

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Speaker 3: So I would say they must not be centrally controlled

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Speaker 3: like we saw with school counselors. They need to be

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Speaker 3: permanently a person, you know, a youth worker needs to

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Speaker 3: be appointed to a school because it goes back. I

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Speaker 3: will never forget an excellent educator saying to me, you

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Speaker 3: have to make a connection before correction, and they must

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Speaker 3: be there to develop those relationships with the kids. You

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Speaker 3: can't just have people be moved around, so they shouldn't

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Speaker 3: be centrally allocated, you know. We would have to make sure,

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Speaker 3: I hope, with the recruitment that you know, some principles

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Speaker 3: are involved with the recruitment because every school context is different,

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Speaker 3: you know, and so whoever is allocated must be not

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Speaker 3: taking the directions from the department, but working with the

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Speaker 3: leadership of a school as to what the needs of

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Speaker 3: their kids are. And then we need to look at

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Speaker 3: you know, are they permanent position to encourage people to

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Speaker 3: invest in a community and the ongoing funding. But if

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Speaker 3: we can tick all those boxes off, there would not

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Speaker 3: be a school that would not welcome additional resources.

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Speaker 2: Bev.

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Speaker 1: Is it a concern that for some of these schools

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Speaker 1: they're not actually going to have them until next year?

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Speaker 3: Oh well, look it is, Katie, But we know public

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Speaker 3: service recruitment does take a while. I'm actually amazed this

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Speaker 3: must have been in the pipeline for a while because

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Speaker 3: when I looked at what there's nine going to be

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Speaker 3: starting in this term or in semester IWO, I've actually

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Speaker 3: often been involved in selection panels for principles and it

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Speaker 3: is an extended process, you know, So I think it's

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Speaker 3: I'm quite spous that they've even got the capacity to

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Speaker 3: get the in school this term. And when I look

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Speaker 3: at the school, there's certainly one around for Doe and

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Speaker 3: Middle Doe on high Night, Middle Sanderson, Tanna Creek, Ipe

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Speaker 3: to Mimi College. There's certainly the schools with need and

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Speaker 3: as we've seen, you know, how many times have I

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Speaker 3: been on your show. If the resources aren't in schools,

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Speaker 3: we're seeing what's happening with youth in the community.

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Speaker 2: And this is the big thing, Beverly.

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Speaker 1: You know, it's it's like this whole you know, this

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Speaker 1: whole issue came about and really came to light. I

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Speaker 1: reckon it was last year when I actually had the

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Speaker 1: school captains of one of the schools.

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Speaker 2: Come on because this was such a concern to the kids.

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Speaker 1: And you know, that's where for me, it really hits

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Speaker 1: a nerve in a totally different way.

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Speaker 2: When you've got kids that are prepared to stand up

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Speaker 2: and say we need you know, we need more.

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Speaker 1: Than the support that we're currently getting. How can you

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Speaker 1: not listen to that?

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Speaker 3: Yeah? Absolutely, you know, and the teacher teachers can't be

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Speaker 3: expected to pick up the slack of everything. You know,

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Speaker 3: the curriculum was already overloaded more and more, especially teachers

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Speaker 3: in middle scene schools dealing with those hormonal teenagers. They've

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Speaker 3: got a full plate. You know, I would not want

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Speaker 3: to be a teacher in any way, shape or form.

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Speaker 3: I just think they bless them all for choosing to

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Speaker 3: get out of bed every day and turn up to

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Speaker 3: school and the demands placed on them. So whatever resources

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Speaker 3: we can get into school, you know, and i'd have

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Speaker 3: as the other thing I've talked to you with, this

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Speaker 3: is a good start.

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Speaker 2: Of course, the.

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Speaker 3: Department can needs to continue trying to recruit the school counselors,

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Speaker 3: but that's not going to be easy. And what I

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Speaker 3: do love about this is finally future proofing and building

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Speaker 3: the pipeline by those scholarships. So that's a great initiative

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Speaker 3: to now build that pipeline of training and encouraging people

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Speaker 3: to get into this field so that we have a

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Speaker 3: pipeline of school counselors heading for schools. And now all

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Speaker 3: we need to do is get the school bas comfortables

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Speaker 3: back into schools, and you know that will be a

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Speaker 3: really good start on giving the support for the kids

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Speaker 3: and the teachers that need it.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, I was going to ask you, Beverly, is that

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Speaker 1: something that you know that you would like to see

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Speaker 1: any you know, any political hopeful or anybody that's putting

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Speaker 1: their hand up to run for the election in thirty

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Speaker 1: nine days to commit to.

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Speaker 3: Absolutely, And it's not this lily delivered language about the school.

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Speaker 3: What do they call it school based policing. The comfortables

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Speaker 3: need to come back, and I know the CLP have

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Speaker 3: not committed to that either, so you know, and it's

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Speaker 3: not me calling for this, Katie, this is schools calling

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Speaker 3: for this.

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Speaker 1: Well, look, let me get onto it and I'll make

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Speaker 1: sure that we are we do ask the police about that.

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Speaker 1: Beverly Ratahi, it's always good to speak with you. Thanks

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Speaker 1: so much for your time this morning.

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Speaker 3: My pleasure, Katie, have a great day.

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Speaker 1: Thank you.

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Speaker 2: You two