Sid Sidebottom (Braddon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Madam Deputy Speaker, like your husband and many of my male colleagues in the House, I am a proud dad, and tomorrow I will be joining the launch of ‘I’m a Proud Dad’ bags, which was an initiative from the north-west coast now going nationwide with the support of the Commonwealth government. I would like to share that with a lot of the proud dads in this House at the moment.

After three years of working with new dads, the Dad’s Bag is the result of David Nancarrow’s determination to provide some quality resources to mark the occasion of fatherhood, encourage the participation of fathers in their infants’ lives and raise the profile of fatherhood within our community. David Nancarrow is the Centacare Tasmania’s men and family relationship counsellor in the north-west—and, I have to add, he is a machine.

This program is the result of the federal government’s response to data indicating that men are traditionally difficult to engage in therapeutic services. The program is aimed specifically at supporting men to express their skills in a variety of ways. The research shows that dads are passionately becoming more and more involved in all aspects of their children’s lives. I hope to repudiate what is in those songs Father and Son and Cats in the Cradleif you remember those. Some of us may live with the guilt expressed in those songs.

The Dad’s Bag will be distributed to new fathers attending antenatal classes along the coast, including the Mersey Community, Burnie Private and Smithton hospitals. Good Beginnings Australia formed a partnership with Centacare Tasmania to develop and co-facilitate approximately 72 classes per year. This translates to about 500 dads per year, like Steven, your husband, Madam Deputy Speaker, who will receive one of these bags.

The Dad’s Bag is filled with quality information, including the fantastic baby-care guide for fathers that parallels a car manual. It is called 24-hour cotside assistance: the new baby manual for dads. It has some really good information. Each bag also has a copy of What’s for Tea, Dad? You would not want to ask me that, of course. I would have to look up What’s for Tea, Dad? This cookbook is written by David Nancarrow and provides simple, healthy, cheap recipes that children love. Chips would be included in that, I suspect. David hopes his books will improve relationships by encouraging dads and children to cook together. What a sight that would be. The national interest in the Dad’s Bag has been overwhelming and very positive. It is terrific that such an initiative is a local creation and a result of listening to the feedback of new dads.

The bag contains the 24-hour cotside assistance booklet, which is set out just like a car manual with lots of interesting information. For instance, there is: ‘Looking under the hood. Does it really need to be changed? Some dads prefer the sniff method. Some peek. Others can tell by the feel of the nappy.’ That has very good information and I recommend it. It is very relevant for those of us with a memory and a good nose. The humdinger of them all: What’s for Tea, Dad? 23 easy to follow recipes: a cookbook for dad. It has hints on apple crumble, quick puddings, pan fried bananas, jam roly-poly, pancakes, pasta bake, homemade hamburgers—you can still have them—scallop dishes, fish dishes, chicken pie, creamy potato and lots and lots more. Also included are little sections where you put photos of dad and the kids cooking and sections where you can write down little poems you think of while you are at it. It has tips for dad about what to do with the children. If I may, what caught my eye in the Dad’s Bag was a great story ‘Food for thought’: ‘As a flight attendant, I was serving dinner to passengers. After I placed a plate of lasagne on one man’s tray, he sampled it and frowned. “Doesn’t it taste like mum’s?” I jokingly asked. “Mum’s?” he replied. “This doesn’t even taste like Dad’s.”

This material of course will not be the butt of such a joke and I congratulate David Nancarrow and Centacare Tasmania for such a wonderful initiative. I am a proud dad too.