SBS News in Filipino, Sunday 6 July 2025
The Philippine government continues its repatriation program for Filipinos wanting to return home to the Philippines from Israel.
The winners of the annual National NAIDOC Awards have been revealed, recognising the individual excellence and achievements of First Nations people.
Award-winning actress and singer Lea Salonga is among 35 celebrities set to receive a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 2026, making her the first Filipina to earn the honour.
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ABC News
an hour ago
- ABC News
Fast-track childcare courses are putting Australia's children at risk, insiders warn
Thousands of students are getting fast-tracked qualifications to work in childcare centres and it's compromising safety standards, experts warn. Some of these courses are being used as visa pathways, some stripped of substance, others entirely fake. Education providers are cashing in, pumping out tens of thousands of students — some with no prior childcare experience — and pushing them into centres with minimal oversight. A cache of regulatory documents has also revealed widespread gaps in basic care: educators not understanding child protection policies, mandatory reporting duties, or even safe sleep and hygiene practices. Some childcare centre staff were failing to report serious incidents due to a lack of understanding of the rules and obligations. Last week, the arrest of Melbourne childcare worker Joshua Dale Brown, charged with more than 70 child abuse offences involving children as young as five months, triggered emergency crisis talks and promises of urgent reform from state and federal governments. But behind these announcements lies a structural problem. The training system producing the next generation of early childhood educators is failing. With more than 21,000 educators needed and one in four current workers planning to leave the sector, some universities and colleges have seized on the labour shortage and recent changes to Australia's migration rules — which now include childcare as a pathway for permanent residency. In the rush, quality has been sacrificed. To become an early childhood teacher in Australia, a four-year degree is typical. But some providers are offering graduate diplomas that take as little as 10 months to complete, with no prior teaching or childcare experience required. One institution pushing it hard is Southern Cross University (SCU), a 31-year-old institution based in regional NSW, with campuses in Lismore, Coffs Harbour and the Gold Coast. It also has a presence in Sydney, Melbourne, and Perth. 2023 marked a turning point when it bought out a private education partner and ramped up its international student intake. Fast-track courses like childcare were aggressively marketed through education and immigration agents. In just two years, 7.30 understands an estimated 6,000 students have enrolled in its 10-month graduate diploma in early education — a course marketed by third parties to both local and international students as a shortcut to becoming a qualified teacher. At $25,000 per student, that's around $150 million in fees. The majority are international students, some are men in their 40s and 50s, with backgrounds in fields like IT, engineering and finance — not early childhood education or teaching. "Childcare services are recognising that students are quite openly telling them that they are only there to get their permanent residency and that's why they are undertaking the course," one Southern Cross University insider said. Immigration expert Mark Glazbrook said the surge in fast-track courses to attract overseas students looking for permanent residency was deeply concerning. "A large number of these students are not genuine in their desire to work in the childcare sector," Mr Glazbrook told 7.30. "It should concern every Australian that we have people coming into Australia on student visas that are studying courses just to use that pathway to get permanent residency. "They're looking after our children and in some cases they're not attending their classes." He said some applicants openly admit they have no interest in early childhood education and simply want to know which course is most likely to get them permanent residency. It has led to a boom in low-quality and sometimes fake qualifications. Last year, the national vocational regulator ASQA revoked more than 21,000 certificates, including nearly 2,000 in childcare, after finding four private colleges had issued fraudulent paperwork. It is part of a broader probe into 138 providers, 29 of which are registered to offer childcare courses. "There are a lot of education providers that are set up to deliver courses that are worthless," Mr Glazbrook said. Educators, experts and parents say the consequences of substandard training are playing out in childcare centres across the country, from poor supervision to unsafe practices and serious breaches in care. Some of SCU's students have been terminated or asked to leave by various centres, or have been put on an action plan and possible deferment of a placement during their 30-day placements after the centre reported incidents, including falling asleep during shifts, ignoring distressed children, and engaging in inappropriate physical contact. Documents seen by 7.30 refer to one student caught trying to take children into private spaces unsupervised. "Student has been taking children away from educators alone, continuously, has not responded or stopped when asked," internal records state. "Even has been asked in home language with no change. No observations or documentation has been completed at all despite support. Has said they do not need to engage in any learning and they are only here to get their visa." Another student was noted as being terminated for inappropriate and unwanted physical conduct with children including cuddling children who didn't want it, rubbing a child's chest and lifting a child's dress. An educator at a NSW childcare centre didn't complete their placement after being caught playing computer games on the job. One was asked to leave after shaking a toddler. Multiple current and former staff, assessors and contractors — some bound by confidentiality agreements — say many students doing the graduate diploma struggle with the basics, and some are passing assessments despite serious integrity breaches. "We've had a lot of AI issues for this particular course. We have had lots of plagiarism. We've had collusion between students," one former academic said. They said the course was referred to as "the golden goose" and a "cash cow" inside the faculty. The pressure to push students through is compounded by the university's rapid growth. "We've gone from 200 students studying a unit to more than 2,000," another former academic said. The concerns go far beyond the classroom. Leaked emails and whistleblower testimony reveal how SCU enrolled so many students in the past two years that it struggled to find enough childcare placements for students, which is a compulsory component of the course. In May, staff were told the situation had become a "significant crisis" threatening the viability of the university's education faculty. At the time, the university needed to place 400 students for May and another 2,381 by July. Centres were offered incentives to take more students and the staff who made the most calls won a gift card. Meanwhile, students were being assigned to centres hours from home, with little notice. "The situation is getting desperate," a contractor with the university said. "Staff are getting abused, some students are in tears on the phone saying they have taken annual leave from their paid job expecting to start their placement and don't have one … it's an absolute crisis." SCU placed - or tried to place - some students in centres that are failing to meet minimum national quality standards. One example is students being placed at a childcare centre in NSW which is rated "significant improvement required", the lowest of all quality ratings and one that carries a red flag risk for child safety. Marianne Fenech, a professor of early childhood education at the University of Sydney, said placing students in centres with a low quality rating was unacceptable. Greens MP Abigail Boyd, who helped obtain internal documents from the NSW regulator, and is chairing a parliamentary enquiry, said that particular centre had a long record of serious breaches. "Not understanding safe sleep policies, not inducting staff properly, not checking working with children checks," she said. "The idea that a centre that is incapable of understanding and complying with regulation is then taking on these trainee students, how on earth is it giving them a good education?" Whistleblowers say fast-track courses are a symptom of a broken system. "It's not about whether it's a good learning environment, it's about getting them through," one said. "And the question nobody is asking is: what's this doing to the kids?" Professor Fenech says she is concerned about the decline in education quality. She said analysis of the Teachers in Early Education national study revealed nine new graduate diploma courses have been approved this year, with two-thirds of them run by private colleges. She noted that fees for international students range between $23,292-$36,400 a year for a full fee-paying place and between $17,500-$40,500 at private institutions. "What we're seeing is a dramatic shift from four-year undergraduate programs and two-year postgraduate programs to one-year graduate diplomas," she told 7.30. "This is new in the teacher education space because we have a significant shortage of early childhood teachers." Professor Fenech said employers of high quality childcare services were telling her that the quality of graduates coming out was not what it used to be. She said Sydney University won't offer fast track courses. "I wouldn't propose it, I don't have confidence they prepare graduates well enough for what they are required to do educating children," she said. Former educator Lynette Rieck, now a trainer and assessor, agrees. She has worked in childcare for 35 years and says the quality of graduates and educators has never been lower. "The only way we're going to get enough educators through is by dropping the standards," Ms Rieck said. "But the people who pay the price are the children." She says for-profit centres are the key problem, offering low pay, poor training, and little oversight. "If you don't invest in your educators, you can't expect quality care. It's not complicated," she said. The consequences of poor quality education can be devastating. In July 2018, Jozef Maragol's 16-month-old daughter, Arianna, was found unresponsive at a Sydney childcare centre. "The call came and I was told that we have found Arianna unresponsive and we are currently performing CPR and that the ambulance is taking her to Westmead Children's Hospital," Mr Maragol said. Arianna later died in hospital. Since then Jozef has been trying to get answers. "We had to get a legal team to work with us to start finding out what happened to her," he said. The centre's sleep policy, on paper, exceeded national benchmarks that require staff to check on children every 10 to 15 minutes. He said CCTV footage revealed Arianna had been left alone for a long period of time and was done via a screen rather than physical checks, which makes it harder to see the colour of the skin or a child breathing. He later learned that the centre's sleep practices had been flagged years earlier by an inspector visiting the centre, who noted an educator was doing sleep checks via a screen. He believes poorly trained staff contributed to the tragedy. "Some of these trainers, they're very young. How do they know what is the correct policy or procedures to revive a child that is not responding?" he said. "How do they make the decision of walking into the room to check physically on the breathing pattern of the kids? These are very crucial points that any educator needs to be aware of. "The system, the industry needs an overhaul entirely so we can show that our kids going to these centres are safe." SCU declined 7.30's interview request and did not respond to detailed questions about enrolment numbers, staff turnover, student distress, or course quality and placement issues. In a statement it said the graduate diploma is a "rigorous, high-quality program" attracting strong interest, and that it is fully accredited by the national higher education regulator, the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA), and the Australian Children's Education and Care Quality Authority (ACECQA). In the past year the TEQSA has received a series of complaints from staff and students about SCU's early education courses. TEQSA has launched a probe into Southern Cross University. In a statement it confirmed it has launched "live compliance" processes into SCU earlier this year. It said these findings would inform a separate review of the university's re-registration, which was currently underway. As the sector struggles to fill tens of thousands of vacancies, experts say Australia is at a tipping point. "We don't want a system where we just hot house children in services so their parents can go to work," Professor Fenech said. "We need early learning environments that are going to give children the foundation for success in life that they need." While there are good educators, good students and good childcare centres, experts say they are being let down by a broken system. "I believe in children's rights to a quality early childhood education. I've read the evidence about how critical those early years are," Professor Fenech said. Watch 7.30, Mondays to Thursdays 7:30pm on ABC iview and ABC TV Do you know more about this story? Get in touch with 7.30 here.
The Age
2 hours ago
- The Age
Hannah Thomas warned to ‘prepare for worst' after serious eye injury
A former Greens candidate who suffered a serious injury when police broke up an anti-Israel protest in Sydney last month has been told to be 'prepared for the worst', including the possibility she will never regain vision in her right eye, as she readies for a second round of surgery. Hannah Thomas, who ran against Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in Grayndler at the May election, suffered a serious eye injury at a protest early on June 27, when she was arrested alongside four others. The demonstrators gathered outside SEC Plating, a Belmore business they say supplies services for F-35 jets used by the Israeli Defence Forces. The arrests prompted serious concerns among legal experts after video taken at the scene appeared to contradict key claims by police after the protests, and showed officers failing to explain what laws they were relying on to break up the demonstration. In her first interview since the arrests, Thomas said she has been warned that she will probably never regain full vision following the incident. 'I don't think there is any chance of it going back to what it was, and I've been told very clearly to be prepared for the worst-case scenario which is full vision loss in the right eye,' she said. The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age can also reveal Thomas has been charged using a rarely cited emergency anti-riot power introduced after the 2005 Cronulla riots to deal with 'large-scale public disorder' which requires sign-off by senior police. Loading Court documents reveal that, unlike the four others arrested at the demonstration, Thomas was charged under an emergency power known as part 6a, which requires authorisation by an assistant commissioner or higher. The extraordinary powers, which police last threatened to invoke after demonstrations at the Sydney Opera House in 2023, give officers the ability to stop and search vehicles, detain people and disperse crowds.
Sydney Morning Herald
2 hours ago
- Sydney Morning Herald
This exploration of love is what we need right now
Despite it feeling like the world has gone mad, politically at least, there are always examples of love in our midst. It's an idea that inspired Dr Nur Shkembi's extraordinary new show, Five Acts of Love. 'In this current moment, it is difficult not to see love in proximity to the tumult and turmoil of the world,' she says. 'We see love manifesting in great numbers, as solidarity between friends, communities and between complete strangers in various movements across the globe. We also see the love of individuals, and of humanity, or even nature, as a form of resistance, ever evolving, anew.' Walking into the cavernous, darkened space at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, featuring each work spotlit with the light creating shapes and shadows on the floor, it feels almost like theatre. That's precisely what Shkembi intended. 'Even your eyes having to adjust, it takes a moment. So you do slow down in the space and kind of immerse [yourself]. That's the magic of exhibition-making,' she says. 'You have to move your body and move to engage with [the works]; it changes the way you move through the gallery.' An extraordinary array of art is featured, some new, some old, made by many of this country's top artists: Abdul-Rahman Abdullah, Hoda Afshar, Megan Cope, Eugenia Flynn, D Harding, Saodat Ismailova, Khaled Sabsabi, Larissa Sansour and Søren Lind, Yhonnie Scarce, Ali Tahayori and the late Hossein Valamanesh. Loading 'There is a lot of vulnerability; the artists are sharing very deeply personal histories, personal struggles, speaking to identity and also different forms of intimacy,' Shkembi says. The works speak about family, memory, grief, yearning and resilience. The fact Shkembi works regularly with many of the artists adds another dimension, according to Shelley McSpedden, senior curator at ACCA. Shkembi, who received an OAM for outstanding service to visual arts this year, worked with McSpedden and Dr Emma Clarke, then ACCA's First Nations curator, to create the exhibition. Clarke has since moved to the NGV as head of Indigenous art.
