Submission to the Productivity Commission
on Paid Parental Leave
Introduction
In our view there are two main objectives of a paid parental leave scheme:
- To provide the best possible health and development opportunities for children; and
- To provide workforce attachment for women, which in turn also benefits children.
There is a significant amount of evidence that paid maternity leave can provide major benefits for babies as it gives them time with their mothers at a crucial phase in a child's early years of development (Baker & Milligan 2006; Kramer et al. 2001). Supporting parents so they can nurture their babies and young children is shown to have significant immediate as well as long term benefits for children's wellbeing, their families and society. As a growing body of evidence shows, interventions in early childhood are much more effective than those later in life (Heckman 2006).
The most frequent explanation for the importance of paid parental leave is that it provides a mother with time to recover from birth (Kramer et al. 2001), bond with her baby (Baker & Milligan 2006) and monitor her baby’s welfare, which also provides for better injury prevention (American Academy of Pediatrics 1997), and to establish breastfeeding (Berger et. al 2005). The long-term health benefits of breastfeeding (Chatterji & Frick 2005), and the importance of breastfeeding for enhancing attachment and mitigating maternal depression have been extensively documented (Baker & Milligan 2006). There is also evidence that breastfeeding may reduce the incidence of obesity in later life (Toschke et. al 2002) and that it reduces the subsequent risks of depression and anxiety in teenagers (Oddy et al. 2003). There is also evidence that the more time infants spend with their caregivers in the first year of life the more they are likely to have a long-term healthier lifestyle with less television viewing, more exercise and more social involvement. (Olfman 2005; Ball et al 2007)
More broadly speaking, parental leave greatly enhances the amount of time spent in face-to-face and organised activities that promote an infant's social development and emotion regulation (Greenspan & Salmon 2001). As we will indicate in this report, healthy brain development and long-term mental and physical health are vitally dependant on continuous nurturing interactions over the first years of life (Greenspan & Shanker in press; Greenspan & Shanker 2006). Conversely, we have evidence that maternal employment during an infant’s first year of life can have a detrimental effect on their cognitive development (Waldfogel 2006).
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Children in Detention (Human Rights Commission)
Summary
International and Australian evidence demonstrates the long-term effects of early life experience on health and well being throughout life. The detention of children and young people is detrimental to normal development. The exposure of infants and young children to stress either directly or mediated through the experiences of their parents impairs normal brain development. The manifestations of these experiences are likely to include poor physical health, learning difficulties, behaviour disorders, school failure, risk taking behaviour, mental illness, suicide and criminal behaviour. These manifestations are of direct concern to the Australian community both because of the long term costs associated with these problems in future Australian citizens and the dangers of returning such damaged young people into the International community.
NIFTeY recommends that Governments in Australia work with the Commonwealth Government and Opposition parties to urgently review policy on asylum seekers with the view to increasing community understanding and developing policies that are both humane and rational.
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A National Quality Framework for Early Childhood Education and Care
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Australia’s Children Safe and Well
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