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Speaker 1: As we've been discussing, we know that Professor Scott Bowman

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Speaker 1: yesterday stood down as the vice chancellor of Charles Dalen University.

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Speaker 1: Concerns have been mounting when it comes to this situation

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Speaker 1: with failed apprenticeship qualifications, and Joe Hearsey was on the

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Speaker 1: show last week in an interview with our very own

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Speaker 1: Kathleen Gazola and said that the university had not been

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Speaker 1: upfront with her about the situation as you would have expected. Now,

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Speaker 1: Minister Hersey joins me on the line. Good morning to you, Joe.

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Speaker 2: Good morning Katie, and good morning listeners.

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Speaker 1: Now, Minister, we know Scott Bowman has stood down. Do

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Speaker 1: you think this is the right move?

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Speaker 2: Look, I think that was definitely a matter for the

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Speaker 2: Council to come to a conclusion on. I think there's

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Speaker 2: been a whole lot of scenarios that have gone on,

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Speaker 2: and I've spoken to you on previous occasions to say,

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Speaker 2: at both times when we learned of the escalating numbers

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Speaker 2: in the students who were affected by this, we found

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Speaker 2: out from a third part and that is totally unacceptable

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Speaker 2: and I would expect a whole lot more from our

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Speaker 2: sole public provider that we fund significantly and you know,

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Speaker 2: potentially the relationship for whatever has had broken down since

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Speaker 2: this has all come out. I had had many conversations

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Speaker 2: with Scott Bowman, the previous Vice Chancellor, but I do

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Speaker 2: understand that the Council came to a conclusion on Monday

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Speaker 2: where you know, they need to people across the territory

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Speaker 2: need to have faith and confidence in our only public

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Speaker 2: provider and that was the decision that they made.

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Speaker 1: So have you had any conversations with the incoming Vice Chancellor,

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Speaker 1: Fiona Colson yet?

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Speaker 2: I haven't as yet, Katie. I was busy in meetings

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Speaker 2: all day yesterday. I have had it. I am catching

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Speaker 2: up with her. I think it's on Thursday when I'm

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Speaker 2: back up in Darwin and I look forward to, you know,

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Speaker 2: having a good relationship with her and I think moving forward,

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Speaker 2: you know, potentially, you know, it's something that we need

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Speaker 2: to make sure happens, you know, on a regular basis.

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Speaker 1: Minister. We spoke to her yesterday. She did say that

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Speaker 1: an independent review is obviously going to happen. She'd said

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Speaker 1: that could take about a month. Is that adequate in

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Speaker 1: your opinion? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: So I know from speaking to Scott Bowman while this

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Speaker 2: was all unfolding. He had said, they've got somebody from

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Speaker 2: Queensland coming in doing a review, which I think started yesterday.

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Speaker 2: Being on the ground, they may have found some of

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Speaker 2: these things, you know, in that time. I do know

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Speaker 2: that Ascora there are meetings that are happening very regularly

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Speaker 2: with CDU and you know, trying to work through this,

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Speaker 2: you know the situation, and I know that Ascora is

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Speaker 2: involved in those conversations, you know, fairly regular as his

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Speaker 2: department change concert on from the department.

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Speaker 1: Minister, I want to ask you just onto another subject.

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Speaker 1: Last week you met with your federal and state counterparts

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Speaker 1: where you'd raised a sweeping ban on this pool fencing

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Speaker 1: at the national meeting of Education ministers following what you

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Speaker 1: and I have discussed previously, that the absolutely horrific deaths

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Speaker 1: of Little Territory toddler Ebonie Thompson. Now I understand that

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Speaker 1: you secured those changes to the national laws. Can you

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Speaker 1: tell me a little bit more about what these changes

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Speaker 1: are going to actually see?

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Speaker 2: Yes, last week I was down in Adelaide for the

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Speaker 2: Education Minister's meeting and I have to say, and let

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Speaker 2: territorians know, that was the first time ever the NT

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Speaker 2: has had something on the national agenda and I am

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Speaker 2: very proud as the Education Minister to have brought that

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Speaker 2: to the attention, albeit on the back of extremely tragic circumstances.

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Speaker 2: So we wanted to make sure that I wrote to

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Speaker 2: Jason Claire and Jess Walsh and also the other ministers

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Speaker 2: around the country making sure that there fencing regulations would

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Speaker 2: be strengthened, and we did manage to last Friday get

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Speaker 2: agreeants of all ministers to strengthen the fencing requirements but

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Speaker 2: also by adding the risk of entrapment and strangulation to that.

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Speaker 2: And also there was agreeance to amend the national law

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Speaker 2: to clearly define what active and adequate supervision is. And

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Speaker 2: just to explain that to the listeners, you might have

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Speaker 2: a there are under roof ratios that happen in the

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Speaker 2: early childcare centers and that underroof ratio might in some

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Speaker 2: centers take into account the director that's sitting in an

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Speaker 2: office or someone that maybe sitting in a lunch room

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Speaker 2: or whatever. What we're saying and what we agreed on

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Speaker 2: is active and adequate supervision means four eyes on those

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Speaker 2: little people at all times, and that is something that

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Speaker 2: potentially hadn't happened. You know, if there was more adequate

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Speaker 2: supervision in that case, you know, maybe the tragic circumstances

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Speaker 2: wouldn't have happened. So I'm very proud to have got

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Speaker 2: those changes through. But I also, you know, want to

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Speaker 2: thank Jason Clair, Jess Walsh and all of the interstate

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Speaker 2: ministers that actually, you know, there was hardly a dry

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Speaker 2: eye in the meeting last Friday when we were actually discussing.

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Speaker 2: It was extremely emotional.

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Speaker 1: Minister. I don't expect you to speak for little Ebanese family,

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Speaker 1: but have you, like her parents, do you know if

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Speaker 1: they're pleased that some of these changes are going to

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Speaker 1: come in to be how much any of those changes

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Speaker 1: might cost or what it could mean.

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Speaker 2: I think there was going to be a ten percent

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Speaker 2: increase to providers, but that is not something that we

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Speaker 2: said that we would sign up to. We didn't agree

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Speaker 2: with that because at the end of the day, Katie,

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Speaker 2: that were in such a small jurisdiction. It doesn't go

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Speaker 2: back to the you know, the overall governing body. It

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Speaker 2: goes back into revenue, and it's such a small amount

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Speaker 2: of money anyway, for us here in the territory, it

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Speaker 2: would be forwarded onto parents and with the cost of

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Speaker 2: living and everyone needing childcare, that's extremely important in families,

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Speaker 2: you know, so they can go out to work or

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Speaker 2: for whatever. You know, we didn't see that that was

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Speaker 2: something that we wanted to pass on to mums and

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Speaker 2: dads across the territory.

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Speaker 1: Well Minister for Education and Training, Joe Hersey, I always

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Speaker 1: appreciate your time. Thank you very much for having a

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Speaker 1: chat with us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Thanks very much, Katie, thank you