Episodes

We welcome Leanne back to the show after a few weeks off, tackle a new segment in #NewsChat (hashtag required), and then chat with Kate Solis from ARACY about their recently released Report Card on Australia's performance in a range of indicators for children and young people.

With men only accounting for 3-4% of the early childhood educator workforce, the experiences of males in the sector has always been a topic of discussion. This week Lisa and Liam break down an article Liam wrote explaining why he won't be getting involved in campaigns, events and advocacy related to this issue anymore.

You can read Liam's original article here.

Forgive the plug, but Lisa and Liam have been involved in developing a new guide for services transitioning to the New Child Care Package. Find out more about "Getting Ready" here.

With Leanne once again travelling the world, Lisa and Liam are joined this week by Verena Heron from the Independent Education Union. Verena talks us through the IEU's Equal Remuneration Case with Fair Work Australia.

We're back with our first episode 2018, and we're tackling the fantastic new early childhood education report Lifting Our Game. Leanne and Lisa speak with one of the authors, and long-time early childhood policy expert, Professor Deb Brennan.

It's our last episode of 2017, so we're taking a look back at a tumultuous year for early childhood education. After a quick round of predictions for 2018, we then take a few questions from listeners.

Thanks to all our listeners who have stuck with us this year! We'll be back in 2018.

This week, we have a quick chat about the now-released Minister's and Secretary's Rules for the new Child Care Package due to start in July 2018, before having a longer discussion about who are the "customers" of early childhood education. Is it families, or children, or even the Government? Are there other ways we could look at the issue?

Leanne and Lisa have a chat with the (very) new Federal Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education and Development Amanda Rishworth MP, who has just taken on the role from Kate Ellis. Amanda talks about her priorities in the role and her concerns about the current Government's approach to early education.

This week, we bring you the presentations and some guest interviews from the Children's Week event and morning tea hosted by Early Learning Everyone Benefits at Parliament House.

Lisa and Liam fly solo again (Leanne will return we promise!) and chat about this year's National Children's Week. The theme this year is about education being focused on developing children as individuals, and we discuss how services could use this opportunity to advocate for early education.

Another short episode this week, as Lisa and Liam discuss Lisa's article published this week on ABC News about how profit-seeking landlords are one of the big, undiscussed factors behind rising prices for early education and care.

Liam has a chat with Sarah Baray, the CEO of Pre-K 4 SA - an innovative and groundbreaking early education program from San Antonio in Texas. Sarah discusses the challenges of securing funding for children's programs, and how it can lift children out of disadvantage.

This week Lisa and Liam are joined by Dr. Deborah Harcourt to discuss her recent article on approaches to quality in early childhood education and care settings, as well as her own fortnightly podcast on early education.

Early Learning Everyone Benefits spokesperson and Early Childhood Australia CEO Sam Page joins Lisa and Liam for a discussion about the State of Early Learning in Australia 2017 Report released this week.

This week, Lisa and Liam talk about National Child Protection Week and how well early childhood education services and organisations are performing in their child protection roles.

Early childhood educators, services and advocates exploring issues of inclusion and social justice have been getting a lot of negative attention in the media recently, mostly from the conservative News Corp newspapers. Why are some media outlets to outraged by exploring rights in early education settings, and how should the sector respond?

Lisa also talks with Dr Red Ruby Scarlet about how she has responded to the recent media interest and why the sector needs people who will publicly champion social justice issues.

It's Children's Book Week, so Leanne and Liam talk about the importance of literacy and reading in the early years, before sharing their favourite children's authors and providing a book recommendation each for early education professionals.

This week, Lisa has a chat over the phone with our resident expert on all things tricky and complex with early childhood legislation, Karl Hessian. Karl lets us know what he thinks all services should be doing before the reform package takes effect in July 2018.

This week we bring you an interview Leanne conducted with Kate Washington MP, NSW Shadow Minister for Early Childhood Education. They discuss Labor's policy positions on early childhood education, current issues with funding of early education in NSW and much more. Plus, stay tuned right to the end to find out about our exciting first ever competition!

This week, Liam talks with Sharron Williams - the Board Chairperson of SNAICC and CEO of Aboriginal Family Support Services - about National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day. This annual event is the largest national day to celebrate Australia's Indigenous children. Sharron talks about how important his day is, and why early childhood education services should get involved.