July 25, 2024 • 14 mins
This week in your local news fix...
- A teenager pleads guilty to all charges related to a triple fatality at Maryborough
- Gympie residents hit with a 9.3% rate hike
- How medical students are giving back to the Bundaberg community
- Fishing equipment injuring wildlife on K'gari
- And the rugby league program improving parents' behaviour on the sidelines
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I have White Bay Burnette.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome to Iheartwired bay Burnette, your local news fix. I'm
Taylor Larson, joined by Bruce Atkinson.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
On today's show, medical students give back to their community
and the impact of recreational fishing on dingoes.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We begin with an update on a story that rattled
the Merryborough community and brought a wide bay. It's been
about fifteen months since two women and a teenager were
killed in a car crash last April. A boy who
was thirteen years old at the time, admitted to driving
the vehicle which allegedly caused the collision. The Mercedes was
taken from Amerraboro home and driven dangerously between there and
(00:36):
Harvey Bay on Saltwater Creek Road. It rear rendered one vehicle,
sending it into the path of a second oncoming car.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Youth Pastor Mikhail Chandler and her passenger, seventeen year old
Kelsey Davies, died at the scene, as did nurse Sharie Robertson,
who had just finished a shift at the hospital. The
boy's case was heard in the Children's Court of Queensland
this week. He appeared via video link after reportedly not
wanting to travel from the Tenth Center to court. He
pleaded guilty to all charges, including dangerous driving causing death.
(01:06):
He remains in custody and be sentenced in Harvey Bay
in November. Kimpi rate payers have been hit with a
whopping nine point three percent rate rise. Council passed it's
two hundred and forty two million dollar budget this week.
The mayor, Glen Hartwig, says the region's aging water infrastructure
is the main reason for the hefty rate hike.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
We've got twenty percent of our water network that will
reach its end of life or projected end of life
in the next five to seven years. So we could
kick the can down the road and go, oh look, bucker,
you know, let's wait for the next term. The council
can deal with it. Then it'll be their problem, not ours.
Or we can do what could have been done a
while ago and start the process of identifying the pipes
(01:49):
that need replacement right now and spending the money to
replace him.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
That it gets worse, Gimpe needs a new water treatment
plant costing one hundred and twenty million dollars.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
We have a water treatment plans that was first built
in eighteen ninety eight and refurbished in nineteen sixty four.
Now I don't know of any other local government in
the country that can say part of our water treatment
plan is over one hundred years old and the rest
of it is sixty years old. Most of these have
a last span of thirty to forty years at best.
(02:20):
Ten years ago. To replace a water treatment plant would
have been sixty or seventy million. Council had the money
ten years ago to pay for it in cash, that
money is no longer there. It went on other polished projects.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Counselor Hartwig was first elected to council in twenty sixteen
and is in his second term as mayor. He says
the state government has been asked to help with council's
water problems.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
If we go to the state government and say, look,
we've got a problem. Our water treatment plan has massive
cracks in it that we're suring up with steel so
that doesn't fail, but we want you to come in
and bail us out of this problem. The first thing
they're going to ask us is, well, what do you
doing yourself? And if we just say, oh, look, we've
just you know, got a whole lot of nice projects,
phato opportunities on our budget and we've only done a
(03:04):
small rate rise because you know, we're just hoping and
praying that you come and ride in on your white
night FORRCE and Saviors, they're just going to turn around
and go, well, no, you know, we've got to do
this together. We've got to share the low.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Former mayor and current counsel and mccurran voted against the budget.
He wants to know when the Civic Center would reopen
and what is happening with plans for an indoor stadium.
He also raised questions about three million dollars in the
budget for consultants. Glen Hartwig says the spending is justified.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
There's a lot of work that council doesn't have the
capacity to do. We spend a lot of money getting legal
advice on different aspects, and it could be planning issues,
it could be claims against counsel, it could be other
things that you know we are. It is far cheaper
to get our legal advice when needed from lawyers then
try to have our own firm and pay people a
(03:55):
couple of hundred thousand dollars a year or more to
sit in our office and twiddle their arms until we
actually have a question for them.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
The mayor also wants an audit of the condition of
all council assets, including a painting program, which doesn't currently exist.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
We need to understand the condition of our buildings and
our structures so that we can plan for that in
the future, and we have to spend a bit of
money with consultants to do that, because it is cheaper
to do it that way than try and employ these
people for a short period. It's exactly whether you employ
them for a short period and bring them on as
a consultant, it works out exactly The same.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Medical students are giving back to the community, which they
say has embraced them with open arms. The Bunderberg Easy
Access Community Health Initiative started this week and will continue
every second Thursday.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
In the past, the Vaccine Project ran for multiple years
in Bunderberg. They've ran a program where they help to
deliver flu vaccines and other similar things to people who
can't access those sorts of things as easily. They might
not have a GP or current access to GA. There's
been some changes with the way that vaccines are delivered
in Queensland, so earlier this year I reached out for
(05:05):
them and through there. We've been able to create a
clinic that's run by the Vaccine Project here in Bunderberg.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's head of the clinic now is Steel. Residents can
walk in free of charge to get health assessments. It'll
be happening next door to the regular soup kitchen to
offer more of a one stop shop now. It says
the programs unique and that it's mainly students who are
driving it.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
The majority of the people there are all med students,
so we're all from the University of Queensland, part of
the new Rural Medical Pathway program that operates here in Bunderberg.
Yet we're helping to do a bit of service and
give back to the community that's now welcomed us to
do our medical training.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
As we've heard, residents can get free flu vaccinations, but
more is offered.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
We're supervised by a general practitioner, so we have the
ability to do many things that the GP can do.
If it's just the local checkup, if it's any queries
or concerns, if there's a referral needed, we can do that.
We've done things such as referrals to X rays. We've
also helped people with accessing prescriptions and things like that too.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The next clinic will be held on August eighth at
the Anglican Support Ministry Nearbuss Park.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Stay with us after the break the program helping parents
to improve their sportsmanship.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
I Love White, I Love White.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You're listening to iHeart Wite, Bay Burnette. I'm Taylor Larson,
joined by Bruce Atkinson.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Fishers on Garia being urged to properly dispose of bait
and tackle to protect wildlife. Hooks, lures and fishing line
are killing wildlife on the island. Senior Angel Linda Behrendorf
says it's causing big problems, especially for dingoes, so they can.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Get them embedded in themselves even if they pull them
out themselves. That can cause injury. But it's not only that,
it's it's if they ingest them as well, it can
actually cause them can cause death besides excruciating pain. And
we're just trying to appeal to people to fisheries constily,
and that means I'm keeping an eye on your hooks
and your tackle and your bait and especially your tackle boxes.
Like you wouldn't leave your tackle box open around toddlers
(07:08):
or anyone that could get in an injure themselves. Treat
that the same way when you're fishing out in the open.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
This week rangers had to dart and capture a dingo
caught up in a hook.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
He had a gang hook in his paw and he's
had that in there for about a week. He's able
to get the two hooks out, but by pulling them out,
he's actually called the third one to get right into
his pad and we've had to work with a vet
of course to try and get that out. Massive pain
to that animal. He's doing all right today, we've seen
him moving around, but if they eat, then we've had
one that's actually we've done that cropsy swallowed them by
the fishing scraps. It's had a hook in it, The
(07:37):
hook's got caught in the stomach sphincter and the line
has gone all through his intestine and caused it all
to concertina up, which causes amazing amount of pain. They
can't eat, they're starving, and that particular animal sort of
stumbled out out of the road in pain and got
hit by a car. So, I mean, we really do
implore that this wouldn't happen if people were keeping an
eye on their fishing gear.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
There's around two hundred dingos on Gara, and since COVID
more people are heading to the island.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I'd say there's probably over seven injuries that we've had
to attend to, and there's others that we keep an
eye on. Or we have noticed that a dingo can
normally get a hook out of itself, like that photo
with the lure on the side of the rib cage there.
He was able to sort of grab that and pull
it out of him, but he then runs the risk
of getting that caught in his lip, and if he
tries to get it out with his foot, then he
gets a court in his foot and before you know it,
(08:23):
they're all tangled up. So more cases than we want
to see on the island, and we just try to
ask people to fish responsibly, keep your tackle. And also
one thing that we're seeing is that people are letting
dingoes hang around them while they're fishing and sort of say, oh,
they're not hurting anyone, they're just sitting there. But if
they race in and grab your tailor just as you
reel it in and they take it off, that gang
hook potentially gets caught in his mouth. You get spooled
(08:44):
yelling and swearing at this animal that's not only taken
you catch that you've saved from sharks, the animal can
run the risk of being injured itself.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Taylor Susan is about to start and Linda Berendorf says
even more fishers will flock to the island fish responsibly.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
We're all here to have a good time. People love fishing.
They come to Gary to do the fishing. Gary is
known for its amazing fishing. We want everyone to have
a great time, but in doing that, we also want
you to be able to keep you catch if it's legal.
We don't want you to lose it to dingo's and
we don't want dngos to be getting themselves injured because
they've got themselves tangled up in gang hooks or fishing
rods that have been left knee your vehicle or at
(09:18):
your camping site with their baits still on them, and
they come up and grab it and take off and
get get themselves injured. Just that responsible fishing, fishing corresponsibly.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
The NRL has been working to improve behavior on the field,
releasing programs to help players and coaches, but the dramas
were spilling onto the sidelines affecting our junior rugby league players.
In a partnership with ceq UNI researchers, they developed the
Play Well Triple P program. The Queensland trial has been
hailed as success and will now be rolled out nationwide.
(09:50):
I caught up with Bunderberg researcher doctor Cassie Ditman to
find out more.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
It really is a short brief program design for all
parents who are rolling their children and g in rugby
league to complete so that they get a good sense
of ways they can support their child in a really positive,
helpful and constructive way.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So how does the program work in terms of keeping
up to date with parents?
Speaker 6 (10:11):
So there's two parts to the program. So when parents
first sign up, they complete an online module which takes
about half an hour, and that online module tooks them
through different as those parent traps we can fall into
on the sidelines and before and after games with our kids.
So these are the things where we might get overly emotional,
or we might get too focused on winning and competition,
(10:35):
we might focus on the negative aspects of the game
rather than the positive things that our kids are doing.
And so as an opportunity to that parents to kind
of reflect on their own behavior as well as to
have some strategies for turning that around. That's actually narrated
by Sam Friday, so he features as one of the
kind of stars in the program alongside myself in one
of my colleagues. And then after that program is finished,
(10:55):
that when the text messages step in. So there's a
series of text messages that run over the course of
the season. There's text messages around the time of training
each week and then before games on the weekend. They're
reminders of those goals that parents have set for themselves
and reminders of the sorts of behaviors that might be
helpful versus unhelpful.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
What were the results? Did parents notice some positive changes?
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Absolutely? So. We did a trial with over one hundred
parents of doing the rugby league players and the results
from that suggested that parents were showing reductions and what
we'd call kind of directive or over controlling behavior in sport.
So that's the type of behavior where parents are really
focused on winning. They might be critical and negative or
hostile to their child in relating to their sports. So
(11:42):
we saw a reduction in parents' use of those sorts
of behaviors and we saw an improvement in sort of
active and positive involvement, so offering praise and encouragement, focusing
on the good things that they're doing, and also being
respectful to other people involved in the game, so you know, referees, coaches,
and children from other teams. Improvement and those positive behaviors.
Interesting that what we also saw is a reduction in
(12:05):
sort of inappropriate or difficult behavior in the home as well.
So what parents were learning in that sports context was
carrying over to the sorts of behaviors that were using
with their children and their parenting at home as well.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And it must be pretty exciting now that this is
getting picked up nationally.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
It's really exciting that it's going national. I think that
shows really that drive from the NRL to do something
different and constructive when it comes to supporting parents, So
going beyond just that typical code of conduct that we're
all familiar with that we see on a printed board
on the sideline when we go to any sort of
junior sport. They realized that was just a very small
(12:41):
piece of the puzzle, and I think they really advocated
to find ways to support parents to understand what's expected
of them, what is okay and what's not so okay?
And how they can you know, what are the things
they can do to make sure their kids enjoy sport
which really has that long term benefit for kids in
terms of the joy sport. They commit to the sport,
(13:01):
they stay in the sport longer, which has all those
great sort of physical and psychological benefits for kids.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And finally, what about the kids, How did this help them?
Did they maybe perhaps feel more comfortable or more encouraged?
Speaker 6 (13:14):
That is the idea. We did some lovely interviews with
children and teenagers who are involved in rugby league and
it really showed us that kids love their parents and
their grandparents and their family members being there, being there
on the sideline and part of their sport. But what
they don't like so much is when their behavior becomes negative,
when they're yelling and shouting, when they're sort of offering
(13:36):
instructions that are officers or interfere with what they're coach
is telling them. But they love that their parents are
encouraging and applauding them, and you know, after the game
of focusing on what they're doing that's good, which might
be the skills and performance on the field, but also
just might be the way they helped out another teammate
or the good sportsmanship they showed towards the other team.
So there's things that kids really enjoy seeing their parents doing,
(13:59):
and that's what we're trying to build through the Playwell program.
So at the end of the day, kids really enjoy
what they're doing and they want to they want to
stick around in sports.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And while the program has had success in rugby league,
researchers are now looking into similar projects for other junior sports.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
That's all for this week. If you want to hear
this episode again or search for previous ones, look up
iHeart Wide Babe Burnett on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
We're back again next week with more local, trusted and
free news I have
I have White Bay Burnette.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Welcome to Iheartwired bay Burnette, your local news fix. I'm
Taylor Larson, joined by Bruce Atkinson.
Speaker 3 (00:09):
On today's show, medical students give back to their community
and the impact of recreational fishing on dingoes.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
We begin with an update on a story that rattled
the Merryborough community and brought a wide bay. It's been
about fifteen months since two women and a teenager were
killed in a car crash last April. A boy who
was thirteen years old at the time, admitted to driving
the vehicle which allegedly caused the collision. The Mercedes was
taken from Amerraboro home and driven dangerously between there and
(00:36):
Harvey Bay on Saltwater Creek Road. It rear rendered one vehicle,
sending it into the path of a second oncoming car.
Speaker 3 (00:43):
Youth Pastor Mikhail Chandler and her passenger, seventeen year old
Kelsey Davies, died at the scene, as did nurse Sharie Robertson,
who had just finished a shift at the hospital. The
boy's case was heard in the Children's Court of Queensland
this week. He appeared via video link after reportedly not
wanting to travel from the Tenth Center to court. He
pleaded guilty to all charges, including dangerous driving causing death.
(01:06):
He remains in custody and be sentenced in Harvey Bay
in November. Kimpi rate payers have been hit with a
whopping nine point three percent rate rise. Council passed it's
two hundred and forty two million dollar budget this week.
The mayor, Glen Hartwig, says the region's aging water infrastructure
is the main reason for the hefty rate hike.
Speaker 4 (01:27):
We've got twenty percent of our water network that will
reach its end of life or projected end of life
in the next five to seven years. So we could
kick the can down the road and go, oh look, bucker,
you know, let's wait for the next term. The council
can deal with it. Then it'll be their problem, not ours.
Or we can do what could have been done a
while ago and start the process of identifying the pipes
(01:49):
that need replacement right now and spending the money to
replace him.
Speaker 3 (01:53):
That it gets worse, Gimpe needs a new water treatment
plant costing one hundred and twenty million dollars.
Speaker 4 (01:58):
We have a water treatment plans that was first built
in eighteen ninety eight and refurbished in nineteen sixty four.
Now I don't know of any other local government in
the country that can say part of our water treatment
plan is over one hundred years old and the rest
of it is sixty years old. Most of these have
a last span of thirty to forty years at best.
(02:20):
Ten years ago. To replace a water treatment plant would
have been sixty or seventy million. Council had the money
ten years ago to pay for it in cash, that
money is no longer there. It went on other polished projects.
Speaker 3 (02:33):
Counselor Hartwig was first elected to council in twenty sixteen
and is in his second term as mayor. He says
the state government has been asked to help with council's
water problems.
Speaker 4 (02:42):
If we go to the state government and say, look,
we've got a problem. Our water treatment plan has massive
cracks in it that we're suring up with steel so
that doesn't fail, but we want you to come in
and bail us out of this problem. The first thing
they're going to ask us is, well, what do you
doing yourself? And if we just say, oh, look, we've
just you know, got a whole lot of nice projects,
phato opportunities on our budget and we've only done a
(03:04):
small rate rise because you know, we're just hoping and
praying that you come and ride in on your white
night FORRCE and Saviors, they're just going to turn around
and go, well, no, you know, we've got to do
this together. We've got to share the low.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Former mayor and current counsel and mccurran voted against the budget.
He wants to know when the Civic Center would reopen
and what is happening with plans for an indoor stadium.
He also raised questions about three million dollars in the
budget for consultants. Glen Hartwig says the spending is justified.
Speaker 4 (03:32):
There's a lot of work that council doesn't have the
capacity to do. We spend a lot of money getting legal
advice on different aspects, and it could be planning issues,
it could be claims against counsel, it could be other
things that you know we are. It is far cheaper
to get our legal advice when needed from lawyers then
try to have our own firm and pay people a
(03:55):
couple of hundred thousand dollars a year or more to
sit in our office and twiddle their arms until we
actually have a question for them.
Speaker 3 (04:02):
The mayor also wants an audit of the condition of
all council assets, including a painting program, which doesn't currently exist.
Speaker 4 (04:09):
We need to understand the condition of our buildings and
our structures so that we can plan for that in
the future, and we have to spend a bit of
money with consultants to do that, because it is cheaper
to do it that way than try and employ these
people for a short period. It's exactly whether you employ
them for a short period and bring them on as
a consultant, it works out exactly The same.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Medical students are giving back to the community, which they
say has embraced them with open arms. The Bunderberg Easy
Access Community Health Initiative started this week and will continue
every second Thursday.
Speaker 1 (04:45):
In the past, the Vaccine Project ran for multiple years
in Bunderberg. They've ran a program where they help to
deliver flu vaccines and other similar things to people who
can't access those sorts of things as easily. They might
not have a GP or current access to GA. There's
been some changes with the way that vaccines are delivered
in Queensland, so earlier this year I reached out for
(05:05):
them and through there. We've been able to create a
clinic that's run by the Vaccine Project here in Bunderberg.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
That's head of the clinic now is Steel. Residents can
walk in free of charge to get health assessments. It'll
be happening next door to the regular soup kitchen to
offer more of a one stop shop now. It says
the programs unique and that it's mainly students who are
driving it.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
The majority of the people there are all med students,
so we're all from the University of Queensland, part of
the new Rural Medical Pathway program that operates here in Bunderberg.
Yet we're helping to do a bit of service and
give back to the community that's now welcomed us to
do our medical training.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
As we've heard, residents can get free flu vaccinations, but
more is offered.
Speaker 1 (05:47):
We're supervised by a general practitioner, so we have the
ability to do many things that the GP can do.
If it's just the local checkup, if it's any queries
or concerns, if there's a referral needed, we can do that.
We've done things such as referrals to X rays. We've
also helped people with accessing prescriptions and things like that too.
Speaker 2 (06:07):
The next clinic will be held on August eighth at
the Anglican Support Ministry Nearbuss Park.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Stay with us after the break the program helping parents
to improve their sportsmanship.
Speaker 4 (06:20):
I Love White, I Love White.
Speaker 2 (06:27):
You're listening to iHeart Wite, Bay Burnette. I'm Taylor Larson,
joined by Bruce Atkinson.
Speaker 3 (06:32):
Fishers on Garia being urged to properly dispose of bait
and tackle to protect wildlife. Hooks, lures and fishing line
are killing wildlife on the island. Senior Angel Linda Behrendorf
says it's causing big problems, especially for dingoes, so they can.
Speaker 5 (06:46):
Get them embedded in themselves even if they pull them
out themselves. That can cause injury. But it's not only that,
it's it's if they ingest them as well, it can
actually cause them can cause death besides excruciating pain. And
we're just trying to appeal to people to fisheries constily,
and that means I'm keeping an eye on your hooks
and your tackle and your bait and especially your tackle boxes.
Like you wouldn't leave your tackle box open around toddlers
(07:08):
or anyone that could get in an injure themselves. Treat
that the same way when you're fishing out in the open.
Speaker 3 (07:12):
This week rangers had to dart and capture a dingo
caught up in a hook.
Speaker 5 (07:16):
He had a gang hook in his paw and he's
had that in there for about a week. He's able
to get the two hooks out, but by pulling them out,
he's actually called the third one to get right into
his pad and we've had to work with a vet
of course to try and get that out. Massive pain
to that animal. He's doing all right today, we've seen
him moving around, but if they eat, then we've had
one that's actually we've done that cropsy swallowed them by
the fishing scraps. It's had a hook in it, The
(07:37):
hook's got caught in the stomach sphincter and the line
has gone all through his intestine and caused it all
to concertina up, which causes amazing amount of pain. They
can't eat, they're starving, and that particular animal sort of
stumbled out out of the road in pain and got
hit by a car. So, I mean, we really do
implore that this wouldn't happen if people were keeping an
eye on their fishing gear.
Speaker 3 (07:57):
There's around two hundred dingos on Gara, and since COVID
more people are heading to the island.
Speaker 5 (08:02):
I'd say there's probably over seven injuries that we've had
to attend to, and there's others that we keep an
eye on. Or we have noticed that a dingo can
normally get a hook out of itself, like that photo
with the lure on the side of the rib cage there.
He was able to sort of grab that and pull
it out of him, but he then runs the risk
of getting that caught in his lip, and if he
tries to get it out with his foot, then he
gets a court in his foot and before you know it,
(08:23):
they're all tangled up. So more cases than we want
to see on the island, and we just try to
ask people to fish responsibly, keep your tackle. And also
one thing that we're seeing is that people are letting
dingoes hang around them while they're fishing and sort of say, oh,
they're not hurting anyone, they're just sitting there. But if
they race in and grab your tailor just as you
reel it in and they take it off, that gang
hook potentially gets caught in his mouth. You get spooled
(08:44):
yelling and swearing at this animal that's not only taken
you catch that you've saved from sharks, the animal can
run the risk of being injured itself.
Speaker 3 (08:51):
Taylor Susan is about to start and Linda Berendorf says
even more fishers will flock to the island fish responsibly.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
We're all here to have a good time. People love fishing.
They come to Gary to do the fishing. Gary is
known for its amazing fishing. We want everyone to have
a great time, but in doing that, we also want
you to be able to keep you catch if it's legal.
We don't want you to lose it to dingo's and
we don't want dngos to be getting themselves injured because
they've got themselves tangled up in gang hooks or fishing
rods that have been left knee your vehicle or at
(09:18):
your camping site with their baits still on them, and
they come up and grab it and take off and
get get themselves injured. Just that responsible fishing, fishing corresponsibly.
Speaker 2 (09:28):
The NRL has been working to improve behavior on the field,
releasing programs to help players and coaches, but the dramas
were spilling onto the sidelines affecting our junior rugby league players.
In a partnership with ceq UNI researchers, they developed the
Play Well Triple P program. The Queensland trial has been
hailed as success and will now be rolled out nationwide.
(09:50):
I caught up with Bunderberg researcher doctor Cassie Ditman to
find out more.
Speaker 6 (09:53):
It really is a short brief program design for all
parents who are rolling their children and g in rugby
league to complete so that they get a good sense
of ways they can support their child in a really positive,
helpful and constructive way.
Speaker 2 (10:07):
So how does the program work in terms of keeping
up to date with parents?
Speaker 6 (10:11):
So there's two parts to the program. So when parents
first sign up, they complete an online module which takes
about half an hour, and that online module tooks them
through different as those parent traps we can fall into
on the sidelines and before and after games with our kids.
So these are the things where we might get overly emotional,
or we might get too focused on winning and competition,
(10:35):
we might focus on the negative aspects of the game
rather than the positive things that our kids are doing.
And so as an opportunity to that parents to kind
of reflect on their own behavior as well as to
have some strategies for turning that around. That's actually narrated
by Sam Friday, so he features as one of the
kind of stars in the program alongside myself in one
of my colleagues. And then after that program is finished,
(10:55):
that when the text messages step in. So there's a
series of text messages that run over the course of
the season. There's text messages around the time of training
each week and then before games on the weekend. They're
reminders of those goals that parents have set for themselves
and reminders of the sorts of behaviors that might be
helpful versus unhelpful.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
What were the results? Did parents notice some positive changes?
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Absolutely? So. We did a trial with over one hundred
parents of doing the rugby league players and the results
from that suggested that parents were showing reductions and what
we'd call kind of directive or over controlling behavior in sport.
So that's the type of behavior where parents are really
focused on winning. They might be critical and negative or
hostile to their child in relating to their sports. So
(11:42):
we saw a reduction in parents' use of those sorts
of behaviors and we saw an improvement in sort of
active and positive involvement, so offering praise and encouragement, focusing
on the good things that they're doing, and also being
respectful to other people involved in the game, so you know, referees, coaches,
and children from other teams. Improvement and those positive behaviors.
Interesting that what we also saw is a reduction in
(12:05):
sort of inappropriate or difficult behavior in the home as well.
So what parents were learning in that sports context was
carrying over to the sorts of behaviors that were using
with their children and their parenting at home as well.
Speaker 2 (12:17):
And it must be pretty exciting now that this is
getting picked up nationally.
Speaker 6 (12:21):
It's really exciting that it's going national. I think that
shows really that drive from the NRL to do something
different and constructive when it comes to supporting parents, So
going beyond just that typical code of conduct that we're
all familiar with that we see on a printed board
on the sideline when we go to any sort of
junior sport. They realized that was just a very small
(12:41):
piece of the puzzle, and I think they really advocated
to find ways to support parents to understand what's expected
of them, what is okay and what's not so okay?
And how they can you know, what are the things
they can do to make sure their kids enjoy sport
which really has that long term benefit for kids in
terms of the joy sport. They commit to the sport,
(13:01):
they stay in the sport longer, which has all those
great sort of physical and psychological benefits for kids.
Speaker 2 (13:07):
And finally, what about the kids, How did this help them?
Did they maybe perhaps feel more comfortable or more encouraged?
Speaker 6 (13:14):
That is the idea. We did some lovely interviews with
children and teenagers who are involved in rugby league and
it really showed us that kids love their parents and
their grandparents and their family members being there, being there
on the sideline and part of their sport. But what
they don't like so much is when their behavior becomes negative,
when they're yelling and shouting, when they're sort of offering
(13:36):
instructions that are officers or interfere with what they're coach
is telling them. But they love that their parents are
encouraging and applauding them, and you know, after the game
of focusing on what they're doing that's good, which might
be the skills and performance on the field, but also
just might be the way they helped out another teammate
or the good sportsmanship they showed towards the other team.
So there's things that kids really enjoy seeing their parents doing,
(13:59):
and that's what we're trying to build through the Playwell program.
So at the end of the day, kids really enjoy
what they're doing and they want to they want to
stick around in sports.
Speaker 2 (14:07):
And while the program has had success in rugby league,
researchers are now looking into similar projects for other junior sports.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
That's all for this week. If you want to hear
this episode again or search for previous ones, look up
iHeart Wide Babe Burnett on the iHeartRadio app or wherever
you get your podcasts.
Speaker 2 (14:23):
We're back again next week with more local, trusted and
free news I have
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