Mushroom murderer: key points in Patterson's conviction
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ABC News
2 days ago
- ABC News
Widespread wage theft across childcare sector and pressure on overworked staff, research reveals
Unsustainable expectations on childcare workers are leading to "massive burnout" and compromising child safety, according to a first-of-its-kind Australian study. It also found widespread wage theft across the sector, with more than 70 per cent of educators working an average of 7–9 hours of unpaid work each week. The research from the University of Sydney comes amid a crisis of confidence in the industry following revelations about poor child safety standards at some centres and allegations of child sexual abuse by a worker in Victoria. "Over 70 per cent of our educators say that they are working unpaid hours every single week and for those educators, they're reporting an average of 9 unpaid hours each week — we end up with massive burnout," said lead researcher Dr Erin Harper from Sydney University. The study was based on a survey of almost 600 educators. "Another significant finding was educators' concerns around workload and how that is then interfering with their ability to provide quality education and care," she said. Childcare worker Yingzhao Zhu has worked across some 50 centres over a decade and said staff were struggling, not just with caring for the children but with the hours of administration, cleaning and even taking out the rubbish — tasks known in the industry as "non-contact" time. "To be very honest, doing all of those things in a day and over the weeks, it's pretty hard," Ms Zhu said. Dr Harper's research found the mounting toll of those tasks being spread between too few workers meant staff were only spending 2.5 hours of quality time with children every day. "In our study, over 70 per cent of educators are telling us they are concerned that children are not getting enough of their time," Dr Harper said. "And over 70 per cent are specifically identifying non-contact workload as detracting from quality within their service." Penny* is a childcare worker at a not-for-profit provider, who spoke to ABC News on the condition her identity be protected to allow her to speak freely about problems at her workplace. Childcare workers like Penny are required by law to have a number of "non-contact" hours to design lessons and materials for the children. She said the centre continually pushing to enrol more children meant she was often forced to complete this work in her own time, with implications for the children in her care. "I engage students throughout the whole day but when I have those stressful situations, it affects my work even though I don't want to show it," Penny said. Do you have a story to share? Email She said the centre was forced to rely on casual workers to complete required administrative work or to fill staffing holes, which increased the risk of accidents because they did not have a relationship with the children. "When you change with another educator and then an accident occurs, it's frustrating because if I was there, because of the relationship, it might be avoided," she said. That dynamic put pressure on her to put the children first, which meant completing administrative work unpaid and out of hours. Carolyn Smith from the United Workers Union said employers were taking advantage of staff who were often intrinsically motivated to work in the sector to care for children. "It's impacting educators, it's impacting children and it's certainly impacting quality and safety of care." Dr Harper would like her research to lead to a stocktake of all the tasks childcare workers are required to complete, which often includes providing lengthy updates for parents. That would allow a more realistic appraisal of the number of staff required and better-quality care. "When we look at educators' paid hours, then non-contact workload accounts for about 25 per cent of their time," Dr Harper said. "But when we account for the entirety of their work hours, so including those unpaid hours, it increases to about 40 per cent." In a statement, Minister for Early Childhood Education Jess Walsh said the findings of the report were "troubling". "The foundation of quality in early education is supporting a stable and dedicated workforce," Ms Walsh said. "That's why the Albanese Government is rolling out a 15 per cent pay rise to early educators so they can afford to stay in the sector to provide quality education and care." Ms Walsh said advertised vacancies had fallen by a little more than 25 per cent this year. *Name changed to protect identity.
ABC News
3 days ago
- ABC News
Erin Patterson mushroom deaths trial raises family pain of four poisoned children
The high-profile trial of mushroom poisoning killer Erin Patterson has brought up 160-year-old scars of four tragic deaths in SA's south east. In May 1861, at Hynam — east of Naracoorte — Sophia, Charles, Emma and Susan Norris, aged between seven and one, died from poisoning after eating foraged wild mushrooms. They were believed to have eaten Galerina marginata or funeral bell, which were commonly mistaken for edible honey mushrooms. Noel Norris, whose grandfather was a sibling of the Norris children, said the tragedy stayed with the family for decades. "It wasn't discussed very much for many years, because it was still pretty raw and tender, even after 100 years," he said. "My grandfather would never speak of it. "I did know about it but I didn't take it too seriously. "It was almost told to me like a bit of a children's story." Mr Norris and his wife searched for where the children were buried, eventually finding them in the Hynam cemetery in 2017. The grave was marked out with a fence and a plaque telling the children's story. "It must've been absolutely horrific and I think it left a scar on the Norris family, until now where we've been able to find the graves," he said. Mr Norris said the recently completed trial of Erin Patterson in Victoria brought up some of the emotions. "It brings it back to mind, but our story has been basically put to rest," he said. "We've gone through all the agonies of putting the children to rest, so whilst it does it bring it back, it's at arms length." In South Australia, 932 mushroom-related calls were made to the Poison Information Centre in the decade from 2015 until 2024, most of which were children aged less than five. Of those, 319 cases were referred to hospital. Mr Norris said his great aunts and uncle's stories should serve as a reminder for people of how dangerous mushrooms could be. "Even back from those years of when my family members died, there was still no real realisation of how deadly they can be," he said. "It's only this trial that's brought it back to people's mind to be a bit more aware. "It's a cautionary tale what happened to those beautiful children, but it hasn't stood up and people forget." Hynam Heritage Group secretary Lyn Schinckel said it had long been rumoured the children were buried at Hynam. "Nobody seemed to know where," she said. "There were stories that they weren't allowed to be buried here because it was a private cemetery. "One of the members decided to get the ground-penetrating radar here to actually find if and where they were." Mrs Schinckel was among the attendees at the ceremony in 2017. "We were pretty excited that we'd found something useful that no one else really knew," she said. "It was a very moving little ceremony, particularly for Noel and his wife. "We always knew what had happened but not really how it had finished or where it had finished."
9 News
08-07-2025
- 9 News
Bee attack leaves 24 people injured in French town of Aurillac
Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here An unusual attack by bees in the French town of Aurillac has left 24 people injured, including three who were in critical condition but have since improved, according to local authorities. Passersby were stung over a period of about 30 minutes on Sunday morning, according to the Prefecture of Cantal, in south-central France. Firefighters and medical teams were rushed to the scene to treat the victims, while police set up a security perimeter until the bees stopped their attack. An unusual attack by bees in the French town of Aurillac has left 24 people injured. (CNN) The three people in critical condition were evacuated to a local hospital. Pierre Mathonier, the mayor of Aurillac, told French broadcaster BFM TV yesterday that their condition has improved. One of them was a 78-year-old person who had to be resuscitated after cardiorespiratory arrest and is now in stable condition, he said. The two others "are in good health," he added. According to the mayor, the incident may have been related to Asian hornets threatening a beehive that had been installed on the roof terrace of a downtown hotel more than a decade ago. He said that this had likely caused the bees to become aggressive. Mathonier said that the beekeeper has removed the beehive and relocated it outside of the town. Lieutenant Colonel Michel Cayla, in charge of the local fire services, said that he had never experienced such an attack. He said the victim who was in cardiorespiratory arrest had to be resuscitated in the fire department's ambulance. "In terms of the number of victims, the panic among the people and the severity of some of the injuries, it was impressive," he told broadcaster TF1. France World Bees hospitals health police CONTACT US
