sub181
From: Peter Cook [pcook@midcoast.com.au]
Sent: Tuesday, 24 January 2006 9:31 PM
To: Family Responsibilities
Cc: Peter S. Cook
Subject: Belated Supplementary Submission to Inquiry: Paid Work and Family Responsibilities
Follow Up Flag: Follow up
Flag Status: Red
Attachments: eMJA Slack-Smith et al, Rethinking the early childcare agenda.htm; eMJA Cook, Rethinking the early childcare agenda.htm
| DR PETER S. COOK | 62 GREYCLIFFE STREET, |
| M.B.,Ch.B.(NZ)., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P., | QUEENSCLIFF, N.S.W., |
| M.R.C.Psych., D.C.H. | AUSTRALIA, 2096. |
| Tel 02-9905 8717 | |
| Consultant Adult and Child Psychiatrist (retired) | 24 Jan 2006 |
The Secretary,
Paid Work and Family Responsibilities Submission
Sex Discrimination Unit,
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: 02 9284 9600
Email: webfeedback@humanrights.gov.au
Dear Sir or Madam,
Re Inquiry: Paid Work and Family Responsibilities Submission
Further to my submission which included the letter below, of Nov 8, 2005:
I intended to include my article Rethinking the early child care agenda published in The Medical Journal of Australia, and I have been advised that it is not too late to forward it for consideration by your Committee.
This MJA paper preceded my Opinion article in The Australian "Home truths absent in early childcare debate", which I have already sent you.
The latter, after summarising the main points of the Med J Australia paper, offered suggestions as to what we should do about it.
Attached are:-
1999a Cook PS. Rethinking the early child care agenda: who should be caring for very young children? Medical Journal of Australia 1999, 170: 29-31. http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/jan4/cook/cook.html . This can also be accessed via http://www.naturalchild.org/peter_cook/index.html
1999d. Cook PS. Letter. In response, and author's reply: Rethinking the early child care agenda. Medical Journal of Australia 1999, 171.
http://www.mja.com.au/public/issues/171_3_020899/letter/letter.html ; http://www.naturalchild.org/peter_cook/index.html
I have already sent you:
1999b. Cook Peter.: We need parent-friendly options. Opinion page. The Australian March 24, Sydney. http://www.naturalchild.org/peter_cook/home_truths.html
I hope it will be possible for members of your Committee to include consideration of the important points in this material.
Yours Sincerely,
Peter S. Cook
P.S. If you do not already know it, you may be interested to see the following extract from a statement by the Norwegian Ministry of Children and Family Affairs. This is surely a necessary precondition for bringing breastfeeding rates up to level of world best practice.
...
"Cash benefit for parents with small children
A special cash benefit has been introduced to help parents to spend more time caring for their own children and to give them genuine freedom of choice as regards type of care for their children. This benefit is also designed to bring about greater equality in the transfers the individual family receives from the State for childcare, irrespective of the childcare arrangements made by the parents.
The cash benefit is granted for children between 1 and 3 years of age who are either not enrolled or are only enrolled part-time at a day-care institution receiving operating support from the State. The cash benefit is granted in the amounts fixed by the Storting (Norwegian national assembly). In August 2004 the full rate was set at NOK 3,657 (approx. EUR 457) per month. The cash benefit is only granted at the full rate for children who are not enrolled at a state-supported day-care institution.
If a child is officially enrolled part-time at a state-supported day-care institution, a reduced-rate cash benefit is granted according to an incremental scale. Children enrolled at a day-care institution for more than 33 hours per week are not eligible for the cash benefit. The cash benefit is granted to the person with whom the child is living permanently. The benefit recipient and the child must be resident in Norway. The cash benefit is also paid for children living in another EEA country if the provider is working in Norway."
It is on http://www.norway.org.au/policy/family/daycare/daycare.htm
PSC.
........................................................................................................
----- Original Message -----
From:Peter Cook
To:webfeedback@humanrights.gov.au
Sent: Tuesday, November 08, 2005 11:10 AM
Subject: Submission of Text of Cook: Early Child Care- Infants and Nations at Risk
051108 HREOC PC Submission Work & Family Responsibilities
| DR PETER S. COOK | 62 GREYCLIFFE STREET, |
| M.B.,Ch.B.(NZ)., F.R.A.N.Z.C.P., | QUEENSCLIFF, N.S.W., |
| M.R.C.Psych., D.C.H. | AUSTRALIA, 2096. |
| Tel 02-9905 8717 | |
| Consultant Adult and Child Psychiatrist (retired) | 8th Nov 2005 |
The Secretary,
Paid Work and Family Responsibilities Submission
Sex Discrimination Unit,
Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission
GPO Box 5218
Sydney NSW 2001
Tel: 02 9284 9600
Email: webfeedback@humanrights.gov.au
Dear Sir or Madam,
Re Inquiry: Paid Work and Family Responsibilities Submission: supplementary letter with text of book Early Child Care.
Thank you for your phoned advice that you would accept a late submission for consideration into this Inquiry.
I am sending it by another email and hope it comes through satisfactorily.
Please would you confirm that it has.
I will not send it in hard copy, unless you let me know that this is quite necessary.
As advised there, I am herewith the digital text of the 1997 revised reprint of my book Early Child Care – Infants and Nations at Risk, with a Foreword by Professor Jay Belsky. (I personally gave a copy of this book to Ms Goward in 1997. May I suggest that a copy should be in HREOC's reference library.
I am sending this is partly in response to a statement in your Discussion Paper about the effects of early childcare, which I comment on in one of my appendices. It was statements such as the one you quote on the effects of daycare that originally prompted me to write the book.
Many thanks,
Yours sincerely,
Peter S. Cook.
