Our deadly workforce and the strength of culturally safe early childhood education

Episode Description

In this episode of Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns, proud Noongar woman and SNAICC National Workforce Advisor, Miranda Edwards sits down with this episode’s host Michael Lynch on Wurundjeri Country in Narrm for a yarn about the strength of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early childhood education and care workforce.

Miranda reflects on her journey from secondary school teacher to the leader of one of the most respected Aboriginal-led early childhood centres, Lulla’s Children and Family Centre on Yorta Yorta and Bangerang Country. She talks about the beginnings of Lulla’s, the struggles services face with funding, the importance of culturally safe educational spaces, and what it means to support Aboriginal children to be school-ready from birth. Together, the two discuss how proper recognition and funding for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander workforce and community-led services means that great things can happen.

Miranda talks about the cultural knowledge and love of the job that educators bring to services and the long-overdue recognition that educators deserve. She unpacks the ECEC Workforce Retention Grant, which was announced in December 2024 and provides a 15% wage increase over two years to educators. Miranda discusses the role that SNAICC plays in assisting services across the continent in navigating the process—from eligibility to application—and the importance of applying by June 30, 2025. She discusses how SNAICC is assisting Aboriginal-led services with hands-on guidance on the wage increase to ensure educators are valued and retained—because, as she puts it, the workforce deserves it.

Keep the conversation going—follow and share this podcast episode to amplify the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities.

Explore the stories, topics and issues discussed in this episode of Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns through the resources below.

Links & Further Reading:

Dreamtime at the ‘G

Dreamtime at the ‘G is an annual Australian Football League match between Essendon and Richmond, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) during the Sir Doug Nicholls Round, celebrating the contributions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to the sport.

Stephen Michael

Noongar man Stephen Michael is revered as one of Western Australia’s greatest footballers, having played 243 senior games for South Fremantle. Despite offers from VFL clubs, he chose to continue playing in Western Australia throughout his entire career. Michael won the Sandover Medals in 1980 and 1981, was inducted into the AFL Hall of Fame in 1999 and was named 2025 Sir Doug Nicholls Round honouree. Aside from his playing career, Michael founded the Stephen Michael Foundation in 2017 to help disengaged and at-risk youth in Western Australia.

Lulla’s Children and Family Centre

Lulla’s Children and Family Centre on Yorta Yorta and Bangerang Country in Shepparton is the legacy of Lulla Bamblett, a proud Bangerang woman who dreamed of education for her children. Her daughters carried that dream forward, founding the Lidje childcare centre in 1986, which later became Lulla’s Centre in 2010. Lulla’s provides culturally safe early learning and wrap-around care for nearly 60 local Aboriginal children and their families.

Aboriginal Early Childhood Education Models

Aboriginal early childhood education models are grounded in cultural strength, community and holistic support for children and families. They prioritise the wellbeing, cultural identity and development of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from birth to school age. Models like Boori Milumba—co-developed by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation—demonstrate how culturally responsive early learning can meet the needs of children experiencing family stress and hardship. SNAICC’s Doing It Our Way profiles highlight successful early intervention programs led by Aboriginal organisations that are keeping children safe, supporting families and delivering health and education outcomes across Australia.

The ECEC Workforce Retention Payment Grant

The Australian Government will fund a wage increase for the early childhood education and care (ECEC) workforce through a worker retention payment. The grant recognises the hard work of ECEC staff in delivering vital early years services, acknowledging that a fairly paid sector is critical to the provision of high-quality care and services for children and families. You can find more information on the Department of Education’s Early Childhood Wages website. SNAICC is actively supporting Aboriginal community-controlled organisation ECEC services to access this grant.

This artwork was created to visually represent Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns, a podcast by SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, dedicated to amplifying the voices and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities.

At the heart of the artwork is a central motif drawn directly from the SNAICC Marulu design – a symbolic anchor that represents SNAICC’s identity, purpose, and vision. This central element grounds the piece, reflecting SNAICC’s leadership in advocating for the rights, wellbeing, and futures of our children.

Surrounding this are three figures, symbolising a community in conversation. These figures represent not only the act of yarning, but the diversity of voices – children, families, Elders, leaders, and community members – who will be heard through the podcast. The figures are encircled by layered soundwaves that ripple outward and inward, capturing both the expression of voice and the act of deep listening.

These soundwaves reflect how stories, knowledge, and lived experiences are shared, received, and echoed across communities – from grassroots voices to national conversations. The design intentionally shows sound as both something that travels outward to inform and inspire, and something that returns inward to strengthen identity, connection, and culture.

Content Warning: SNAICC advises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that this episode of Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns contains references to topics that may be triggering to the community. Your social and emotional safety is important. If this recording has brought up any concerns or issues for you, please contact 13YARN on 13 92 76

Michael:

G’day and welcome to episode two of SNAICC’s amazing podcast, Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns. This is a very special episode—it’s our Deadly workforce—and we have a special guest with us, Miranda Edwards. Thanks so much for joining us, Miranda.

Miranda:

Thank you.

Michael:

Yeah, just so, so lovely to have you here today. And I’ve already heard from so many people that are really excited to hear you on this podcast—to talk all about the amazing workforce and the incredible work they do.

My name’s Michael Lynch. So, I’ve just got a call-up for this one from the great Mandy Taylor, the Director of Communications, and Mandy’s just sent us a text—Miranda, can I just say—and it says, Michael, don’t stuff this up.

Miranda and Michael laugh.

Michael:

So it’s very nice of Mandy to send that one through.

Miranda:

The pressure’s on.

Michael:

I’ll tell you what—we’re feeling the heat already here. But it’s very exciting.

I thought I’d kick off by acknowledging the beautiful Country we’re on today. We’re on beautiful Wurundjeri Country and it is so lovely today. I just wanted to pay my respects to Aboriginal Elders past and present, and to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that are tuning in and in the room recording today. It’s so exciting.

So, I wanted to kick off, Miranda, with a bit about your story and your background. And I thought—what a way to start—because you shared a lovely story with the SNAICC team, I reckon a week and a half ago about Dreamtime at the ‘G. What a night it was, and your family’s involvement there—could you tell us a little bit about that?

Miranda:

Yeah, thanks, Michael. Yeah. Dreamtime at the ‘G, what a wonderful event. I think they celebrated 21 years this year.

So yeah, my involvement was—one—my son Clinton Edwards, he’s 17 and goes to Melbourne Grammar, was asked to perform at the ‘G. It was his second time, actually, so we were pretty proud to be asked again. He performed a traditional dance at—on the MCG before the game started. So yeah, obviously it was the second time of him performing, but this time it was pretty special because my uncle Stephen Michael was the honouree for the Dreamtime.

So, each year—I think for the last 10 years—they’ve asked someone to come out and promote the Dreamtime on the ‘G but also to recognise their football career or something they’ve achieved in AFL. And so my uncle Stephen Michael—his dad and my nan are brother and sister—so he’s a very close family member. He grew up in Collie—which, he lives in Collie—he looks after my grandfather currently now. So we’re really close. And for me, for him to be recognised—and him coming over to Melbourne—I was just like, oh wow, I can’t wait to see him and celebrate this time with him at the ‘G.

So, during the week, we were invited to Richmond Football Club for breakfast, where they recognised him and the work that he’s done. He played footy with Maurice Rioli, so it was a really special event around Maurice Rioli—and even Maurice Rioli Jnr—coming and meeting my uncle Stephen. So we were part of that, and to witness that—that night—it was a pretty special event.

Michael:

Oh, that’s just so phenomenal. And I think there’ll be a lot of people tuning into this—from WA and across the country—that would remember Stephen playing—one of the all-time great footy players. I think WA Hall of Famer, AFL Hall of Famer, that’s just… yeah, so exciting.

Miranda:

Amazing uncle. Very humble about his football career. And yeah, look, the story behind him not coming over to Victoria—I really, you know, when he was telling that story throughout the week of the Dreamtime at the ‘G—he shared that he didn’t want to leave his mum and dad. And, yeah, the closeness that our Michael family have, I understood that fully that, yeah, it would have been really hard for his family to come over here… it’s the connection that we all share back home—the closeness—so, I understood that.

Michael:

Miranda, that’s just… that’s just a phenomenal story.

You’ve also had such a decorated career, it’s taken you right around the world. And I know a role you’re so passionate about was your time spent running Lulla’s Children and Family Centre on beautiful Yorta Yorta and Bangerang Country.

Could you tell us a little bit about that—and a little bit about your story?

Miranda:

So I suppose my journey started back in Western Australia. I was a secondary teacher and so… I was teaching in schools and I had a three-day-a-week teaching role. But then the school said, you’re so passionate with the Aboriginal students would you become our Aboriginal liaison for the school? And I was like, yeah, I’d love to.

So, you know—always—I reflect back on my grandparents, sitting in meetings with them, you know, they were mainly—I was jumping because I was on a shopping trip after their meetings. But my nan and pop were amazing advocates for children attending school, you know, whether it be early years through to secondary but school was really important. So I reflect back now on me sitting in those meetings, listening to the advocacy role they played, that I knew I wanted to make a difference in this space, you know, around education.

So, I became a secondary teacher. I met my amazing husband—Bangarang man Clinton from Shepparton—and he… we were in Perth when we met. He said I want to go home to Shepparton. And I said, oh, okay… I don’t know—it’s cold! You know, that was the only reason, it was freezing over here—leaving beautiful Perth.

So we made the trek across the Nullarbor, and I remember saying to my family, I’ll only go for six months and I’ll be back. Well—20, 25 years later—I’m still over here in Victoria. And yeah, I can’t see myself leaving beautiful Victoria.

My role played out that I became a teacher in Shepparton—taught secondary English and Religion at one of the schools there, and really enjoyed it. Then I had my second child, Clinton Junior, and he—my husband said you’ve got to send him to Lidje MACS, an Aboriginal child care centre, I went there as a kid—all the aunties, all the nans, you know, they’re all there. And I went yeah, no problem, I love this, like, I’d never heard anything about it.

So, you know, dropping Clinton off—spoilt, straight away, as soon as you open the door, they grab him, they love him up. He never wanted to come home, I’m like, aw come on! And, so, I just knew from the minute I enrolled Clinton Junior into Lidje MACS that it was a culturally safe place for my son. And just listening to the stories from my husband and him growing up with the aunties, and his nans, and his mum was even a teacher there that I was like, yeah, no problem at all.

So, you know, that was a couple of years of doing that. And, I remember coming in and one of the old Aunty’s said, you know, what do you do? Can I get to know you? And I said yeah, I’m a teacher… and she said would you ever work in early childhood? And I went no! You guys do amazing, I love leaving my son and then going out the door!

And then this particular day—look, maybe six months after that conversation—I must have been… I must’ve looked stressed. She said do you want a cuppa? I said, yeah, I do! So I sat down and yarned and she said, look, we’re thinking of changing… no, we’re thinking of—the community would really like to bring Lidje MACS and Batdja Preschool—which were two amazing run centres for 20-plus years in Aboriginal early childhood education—wanted to amalgamate the two centres to bring them together to have one… a place where you can drop off your child and it’s just in the same venue. So, because one was in Mooroopna and one was in Shepparton, it was about bringing it together for this multi-purpose building.

And I’m there loving it—you know—my son’s going to go from two-year-old room to preschool, and he’s just going to have that beautiful space to be in, and if I had any more children this is going to be a beautiful space.

Then the next question, would you come here and help us bring it all together? I went, but I have a job! And she said, yeah, but you’d be amazing at bringing it all together. And she said, well, look, how about we start with a three-month contract? And I thought, all right. So I spoke to my husband and he said, yeah, why not? So I took three months off from teaching to be… at the time, it wasn’t Lulla’s, because it was all about bringing the two centres together. My job was to amalgamate the two organisations—two boards, lots of staff—it was just paperwork: dealing with the government, dealing with everything like that. So, I really loved it.

Then my contract was up and the board went, would you like to run Lulla’s Children and Family Centre? So I was part of the launching of Lulla’s—bringing it together. The reason behind calling it Lulla’s was, you know, sitting with all old aunties and uncles, they wanted to name it after Geraldine Atkinson’s mother, Esmerelda Bamblett, where, she had 14 children, and her mum said education is the key to getting out of poverty.

And, so, they really wanted to recognise their mother and I went, what a beautiful name—Lulla—they called her… her nickname was Lulla—to recognise her and her children. Which, her children have gone on to run amazing organisations here in Victoria. And I was going to be managing that. So I went hang on, I don’t have any expertise in early childhood but I have a passion. So, yeah, that’s how that journey came to me running Lulla’s. 15 years later—yeah—beautiful memory that I’ll treasure, because I think it’s given me so many opportunities, like you said, going overseas to talk to working here now at SNAICC. So, yeah, I’ll treasure that forever.

Michael:

That’s just such a phenomenal story on two points, because, I think, first of all— the move to Shepp, just for a couple of months! Then, like, the early days helping out, like, before Lulla’s had formed, just a three-monther’… here we are, still in Vic and it’s still freezing as well by the way.

Miranda:

Yes, yes, yes. But I do laugh at family members that come over from Perth—especially my sister from Karratha—and they go straight to the DFOs and buy Kathmandu’s but they leave them at my door because they’re like, we don’t need these in Karratha!  It’s funny watching the family come over.

Michael:

That is fantastic. So, you’re well stocked with the Kathmandu’s. If anyone wants a Kathmandu that’s listening—Miranda Edwards.

Nah that’s fantastic. And I think one of the big things we’d love to chat about today—just the efforts of the workforce out there, just delivering services in an environment where 65,000-plus years of Aboriginal culture is celebrated, and the impact that Aboriginal culture and knowledge has on little ones. I mean, over your years of being involved, how have you found it? And what impact have you seen—have you seen culture have on little ones? And even, I guess, on your own family?

Miranda:

Yeah, yeah—no, thank you. Yeah, throughout my time at Lulla’s Children and Family Centre, we went through lots of challenges from staffing, funding, the child care subsidy changes, COVID, but also some great, amazing opportunities.

I think when I reflect back on the work that I did with the team and the community—you know, community relationship building, successful events, children graduating… the biggest event at the end of the year where 25 children rocking up in a kangaroo skin graduation gown in their little outfits and feeling as proud as anything to go off to school.

But the biggest achievement too is the school feeding back information saying your children are ready. And we’re like, isn’t that what every child should feel like? That they should be school-ready? So, you know, that’s definitely something, from birth, that all Aboriginal communities or Aboriginal child care centres focus on; that we’re getting our children school-ready; we want them to be top of the class; we want them to feel culturally safe. And so, you know, that’s definitely something that—that I’m, you know, that work in the 15 years opened my eyes up.

So, my time at Lulla’s, I was always building relationships with community members, organisations, talking about the importance of Aboriginal childhood education and making a difference. I also worked with every kindergarten in Shepparton and the region, because not everyone could come to Lulla’s. We were a licensed centre and so, you know, we had a waiting list, and so, I didn’t want anyone sitting on any waiting list. I’d work with everyone around, I’d work with community, and, the importance of that was—to every kindergarten—if an Aboriginal child walked into your centre, how are they being made to feel? Do they feel culturally safe when they walk in the door? What are you doing in your classroom settings? And all that stuff.

So, that was really important because sometimes families were like, well, I live across the road from a kindergarten and I’m just going to send my little fella there because it’s convenient. And I’d go yeah, that’s great! Because we just want them attending some kind of—I mean we’d love for them to come to Lulla’s, but again, if there was a waiting list, we wanted them just to be attending some educational space but ensuring that they were culturally safe, as well, was a key thing. So, working with all the kindergartens was something really important that I felt—building them relationships up so that any cultural awareness throughout the education sector—that they knew they were comfortable to come and ask me for any advice. So that was really important.

Michael:

Miranda that’s just phenomenal. And I gotta say, I just want to pick up on something there—you mentioned COVID—so, being at Lulla’s and leading the way during COVID, that was a really complicated time. How did you go about that, and how did you work through all the barriers and all the challenges that COVID threw up?

Miranda:

Yeah, yeah, no, thanks. Yeah—what a time for the world and especially here in Victoria, like, I think about them times where we were impacted—whether it be funding, or personally, or just the restrictions that were put on us. I remember hearing the misinformation around COVID, and just the fear factor that went into our Aboriginal communities—that if it got into an Aboriginal community, it could wipe us out. Imagine hearing that, you know, and I remember our staff being so concerned.

The other impact of that was that we were told we had to work through it. And my staff were so scared. They were like, you know, what happens if I decide not to?, and I was like, well, then, you don’t have a job. Like, it was just the misinformation, like I just… it was a fear factor that went throughout all our communities. I know—I would regularly speak to all the other ACCO centres and we all shared the same thing. We just, day to day, were worried about our families, worried about our kids, and when there were times we had to shut the doors—how are these kids? How are they? You know. So, it was a constant fear, every day.

And I then reflected on the situation, before COVID hit, was the childcare subsidy system really affected Lulla’s Children and Family Centre because we were thriving, we had lots of children coming, we charged really low fees, which was what the concept and the vision of why our multifunctional Aboriginal services were put in place. These aunties wanted somewhere where our children could go where they didn’t have to pay a fortune to go to childcare because the benefits outweigh the—you know—cultural environments, somewhere culturally safe for these children to attend and so on. And so, the government funded these centres and they were called budget-based funding, where you were given an amount of money and you kind of just had to work with that amount or be innovative and creative with that funding.

And then the childcare subsidy hit, where it then said each family or each situation of family circumstances had to apply. And we then started working through some circumstances, and our families were really like, you know, why the change? Why do we have to do this? Why do we have to be involved with Centrelink? And so on. So, it was really challenging. Some of our families went from being five days a week down to two days a week because that’s all they could afford. So, you know, for two days, their eligibility with the childcare subsidy, they would get low fees and if they wanted an extra day, it ended up being $100 a day and who can afford that? Like seriously, you know.

So, I went from having a fully placed centre—72 children a day, fully staffed, extra staff—down to 10 kids in that childcare subsidy period. And I remember advocating to SNAICC, government, and going we’re going to shut our doors, we can’t afford to keep our doors open, the reality is I don’t know what to do. And it’s not a nice feeling because the Aboriginal staff are from that area—are the backbone of that community—and I was like, how do you tell them that they don’t have a job anymore? Including myself. What do we do?

Then COVID hit. And I say this that I’m probably the only one in the world that thanked COVID for coming because the government then gave free childcare. With free childcare became some funding and the funding allowed me to keep staff on board. But it also allowed me to work through each family’s circumstances and work through each of their financial situations to Centrelink, to eligibility processes, and everything. So, also with the free childcare, I went out through a pandemic, knocked on the children’s doors of all the families who had been disengaged through the childcare subsidy and said, come back, it’s free. So, it ended up being like 10 kids to 100 kids in that pandemic period.

Yes, there were times when children couldn’t attend because of high cases of COVID cases. But we decided that, no, the learning still could continue. So we sent home education packs. We did three nights a week cooked meals. We dropped toys off. We dropped, you know, like care packages—hand sanitiser, toilet paper. You know, I was able to source this company that dropped off—it was quite funny actually—dropped off, I think, 500 packs of toilet paper that, for about 12 months, we had toilet paper everywhere! But when families couldn’t get toilet paper, I was like, what am I going—what do you need? Like, the essentials—cleaning products—because, again, the fear that went into some of our communities, and families were like, if I don’t clean this I’m going to catch COVID.

So, we wanted to ensure and educate our community that they were going to be okay during COVID and that we were there for them. And so I reflect back on that time that money, that funding for free childcare, and the importance because it got all our children back through the doors. We were able to work through each family’s circumstances. It was just amazing. And the staffing, the morale—it all came back, even during a pandemic, because it was job safety. Because you know they were able to feel like, yep, we’re okay, the organisation, we’re okay, we’ve got funding to last us.

So, yeah, as much as it was a hard time for the whole state, I really reflect on that when you’re funded properly, great things can happen.

Michael:

Yeah, and that’s phenomenal. And you’ve just touched on something there around, I guess, the challenges because we’ve moved a few years past COVID but a lot of those challenges are still very much there, aren’t they? In terms of retaining staff in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander services. Is this something within your current role that you’re still hearing about on the ground—some of those challenges and barriers?

Miranda:

Yeah, definitely. So, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander early years services consistently identify workforce attraction, retention and qualification development as major challenges, in particular, regional and remote services.

So, definitely, in my role here at SNAICC and when I was working that you’ve got to have a love for this job. That the wage, we know the advocacy work that we’ve played a big part in ensuring the wage increase—the sector deserves—is something that has been advocating for 20-plus years. Early childhood education needs to be paid appropriately for the work that they do. But then I look at the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander educators, and they bring so much more richness, knowledge, culture—there’s no certificate for that. There’s no… but that’s what they bring.

When I look and I reflect back at my time at Lulla’s and now in this space, you know, the nurturing—there’s so much power, and the involvement that an old nan that’s worked for 25 years in this space, you ask her the question and you say, you know, why do you work here? And they say, I love my community, I want to be here, I love this.

So, there’s so much love that’s why an Aboriginal person wants to work in this space. That’s why I think we need to be paying them properly. We need to be acknowledging them in a space of recognised prior learning in our TAFE sector or our RTOs, that, how do we do that?

And I think that’s been one of the key questions in the role that I play in now, that, we’ve got to make the pathways for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in this space a lot better, so that our educators feel acknowledged for the work that they do. Because it doesn’t end nine to five, you know, in the Aboriginal space. We are working 24 hours— weekends, you know, family members see you outside in community events and they want to ask you questions, and they want to catch up with you because that’s the only time they can. So, you’re constantly on the go when you’re in this space. So, yeah, it’s not a nine-to-five job when you’re working in ACCOs, it’s all—and because you love it you want to do it and you want to be in that space.

Michael:

Yeah, spot on, and I just love hearing your passion, there, and the advocacy, you’re just so spot on the money.

There’s been quite a lot of work, to say the least, happening in your space and within your role as SNAICC’s National Workforce Advisor, particularly around the ECEC Worker Retention Payment Grant. So, could you tell us a little bit about what’s going on and, I guess, how SNAICC is supporting Aboriginal-led services to improve workforce retention, which is what you’ve been talking about with so much passion—and any particular initiatives that are in place at the moment?

Miranda:

Yeah, so, the government announced the Workforce Retention Grant on December 6 last year. Before that, all the early years peaks came together for a summit crisis meeting, we called it, where when I reflect back on that, that was amazing in itself, that every single early years organisational peak said enough’s enough, we need to get the government on board to pay our educators right.

Because we know there’s a crisis, we know that educators are walking, we know that educators are wanting to go to higher-paying jobs, because it’s the cost of living at the moment. So as much as they love their job, the reality is that we need either to pay them properly or they’re going to other jobs. So, one of the things that I really felt was great; the government are finally listening, so they announced the December 6 retention grant, which was a 15 per cent increase over two years.

And so, one of the things that’s come with that retention grant is they want the sector to sign an IFA or an MEA—so, enterprise bargaining agreements. So, you know, SNAICC kind of advocated with, well, we’re going to really need to support our sector with understanding what this looks like. Big administration burden. I mean, they’re busy as it is. So I was like, no, SNAICC’s really going to have to take on this role for our sector because it’s important and I don’t want any centre to feel like this is just too much.

So, part of the role and my team has played has been visiting centres, talking through the application process, the eligibility, process and, you know, all that stuff. So, that’s been really, really great. We’ve had so many services reach out for advice. I’ve travelled across Australia, talking to many educators about the process and just reassuring them, because, I think, when this all started, just like anything—change—misinformation, misunderstanding. Once we sat down and yarned with them, they’ve gone aw okay, this okay then and I can do this, it’s actually a great thing.

So yeah, that’s been really great to support the sector in that. Once we got through that, we’ve held a couple of webinars, which have been really great. The communications from SNAICC that’s been going out, a lot of the services have picked that up and gone right I’m on board now and I want to apply. Because, before we really, you know, informing the sector, they were a little bit uncertain about what this meant for them and I’ve then reassured them that it’ll be a great thing. We’ve talked to boards, we’ve talked to health organisations—because some of our services are run out of a health org and they’re agency from that health org. So, we’ve had to do a lot of work educating everyone.

So, look, I’d like to see a lot more centres sign up, we’ve got the June 30 date for eligibility for the backpay. If you apply before June 30, you will have an opportunity to receive funds that are backdated from the December 6 date—a bit more money in the pockets of our educators, which they deserve. They deserve this.

So yeah, in the next few weeks we’ll be really really pushing for our sector, the ones that haven’t applied or, maybe, haven’t picked it up yet, and just getting out there and putting the word out that this is really important.

Michael:

That’s phenomenal. And you touched on it there—you and your team travelling across the continent, across the whole country. You need your own helicopter, Miranda, what is going on?

Miranda:

Oh, I wish, would SNAICC fund that?

Michael:

We’ll work on that, ah, Catherine?

So, I guess from that, from those travels, what sort of success stories have you had? Because I’ve heard there’s been—it sounds like a lot of services are getting on board.

Miranda:

Yeah, look—so, talking about travel—there was one day there I was three flights and a three-hour drive in the beautiful Top End of WA in Kununurra. And, you know, if I never, ever get back up there, I’m just so grateful that within this position I was able to travel there because I couldn’t get over how beautiful that part of the world is.

And so successes are sitting with really remote communities and the directors, seeing the beautiful work they do day to day, and then just reassuring them that this process is going to be okay—that it’s not going to put their centre in any deficit. It’s funding you for the work that you do and this little bit extra hopefully continues so that we can, you know, encourage more people—more Aboriginal people—to work in this space. So, I think that’s been my highlight that once I’ve sat down with the directors to reassure them that, you know, that this will be okay, and a lot of the time, the directors are like I just needed that from you and SNACC, I just needed that okay; we’re going to be okay.

Because we do and I’ve been in that position, where you’re in a director role trying to find money here, there and everywhere, and you don’t want to apply for something that could put the centre at risk. So when you sit down and talk to them about that—and you also reassure them that SNAICC’s going to continue to advocate for this to be ongoing. That’s been my ongoing conversation because there is that fear. They said, what happens after the two years? And I said, at the moment I don’t—because I’m very honest—I don’t know, but I will continue and SNAICC will continue to advocate on your behalf that this is really important for it to be ongoing. So, they’re like great, thank you, we know that you’s do that.

Michael:

Yeah, so, that’s outstanding. And I guess one of the great things about something like this chat—and a podcast—is we can, kind of, unpack some of those questions people might have in a bit more depth than an email or something like that.

So I know one of the questions that people have had—and you’ve already talking about the deadlines—there’s the two deadlines, isn’t there? So, there’s the initial deadline, which is the end of this month, but there’s another deadline, September 30, 2026. But, for anyone a bit confused about the two deadlines, this deadline, this end-of-month deadline is the better one to hit, isn’t it, because of that back pay?

Miranda:

Yeah. And look, the whole process is an opt-in process—so, yeah, I just want to get the listeners to know that. As much as we encourage all of this because we know it will help the sector, you have the option to opt in or opt out. You also have the option to opt in for the back pay in that process as well.

So yes, you are correct—June 30 is the cut-off date for the back pay, so getting the money from 6 December last year. And so, we are encouraging services to apply by then because, well, it would be great to get those extra dollars in the bank before the end of the financial year. And, so, we’re really encouraging that, and, like I said, rightly deserved—you deserve this money.

The September 26 date—2026—is the actual Workforce Retention Grant. That date has been in place because it was only a two-year funding opportunity. So, we want to encourage the all sector, whether they opt in before June 30 or after June 30 that they have til that date to pay the increase.

So, look, we’re willing to work with everyone about all the dates that have been put up on all the websites, the government website and our website. But we are heavily encouraging our services to put in for the back pay because we think that they deserve to be paid from December 6 last year.

Michael:

Absolutely. Beautifully said. So, I suppose to tie up that ECEC chat and the grant—what would be your final message for any services that are listening and they’re still kind of sitting on the fence a little bit? What would your message be?

Miranda:

Yeah, look—my message would be; if you’re unsure, please reach out to SNAICC and myself. We’ll support you all the way to get this done—even face-to-face visits in the next few weeks. I’m willing to do that. I’ve got a great team behind me—whether it’s online, phone calls, emails. We want to reassure you that the process is not as burdensome as it may feel; that the process is quite easy. We want to work through each section of the eligibility process to ensure your staff get the well-deserved increase.

Michael:

That’s amazing, Miranda. It’s been so lovely to speak with you today. Before we wrap up, do you have a final message to the deadly workforce? This is the Deadly Workforce episode of SNAICC Yarns—do you have any shout-outs or a special message for everyone out there who are just doing amazing work?

Miranda:

Yeah, look, like I said earlier in the podcast that you have to have a love for this job—for this space—Aboriginal early years or education. You know, you have to have a love for it and passion for it, so, if your heart’s in the right place, you will see amazing outcomes. And, like I said, seeing kids graduate and going off to school and feeling proud as anything and culturally safe—it’s such a beautiful outcome of Aboriginal early childhood education. Even seeing them graduate from Year 12, you’re like, yeah, and I still see community members—I went to an 18th, and the bouncer actually said to me, you probably know who’s 18 and who isn’t in here. Because I would have looked after so many of them at Lulla’s, and so yeah. Seeing that, you know, what they’ve achieved in their life because they remember you from when you’re at Lulla’s, whether it was a cuddle or just sitting with them, all that beautiful memories. You’ve got to have a love for this job and a love for your community—because you are the backbone.

Michael:

That’s just phenomenal. Thank you so much, Miranda Edwards—SNAICC National Workforce Advisor. Thank you so much for your time today, yeah, really appreciate it, it’s just been amazing.

Miranda:

Thank you—loved it.