There was one thing I really liked about Mark Latham, and that was his first speech as leader of the opposition.

He got up and spoke about the importance of parents reading to their kids.

From the time they pop out into the world to the time the actually tell you that they're happy to read themselves to sleep each night, every child in Australia deserves to be read to by their parents at least once per day.

In fact I think it should be written into the United Nations charter on the rights of the child. Two books - two chapters - 15 minutes - however you want to measure it, reading time is the one fundamental piece of the education puzzle which each and every child needs.

And yes, I believe they need it.

Sitting down with your kids on your lap - or huddled around you depending on the size of your family not only teaches your kids the basics of literacy, it communicates to them the fundamental importance of literature, and of humanity.

Not only does it expand their vocabulary in a way that no school can, it familiarises them with the words, and more importantly the phrasing that goes onto create the fundamental building blocks of written and spoken language.

It introduces them to the characters, tales, stories, adjectives, personalities, numbers, dreams, paintings, structures, landscapes, animals, verbs, environments, rhymes, gardens, houses, measurements, rooms, insects, foods, weather, skies, beliefs, loves, lives and fears which will go on to inform their intellectual, and emotional development.

Reading to children doesn't only make them smarter, it makes them into more confident, imaginative and caring individuals.

A child who is read to has thought about the world from different points of view. A child who is read to has heard about the world through different voices. Most importantly of all a child who is read to has learnt to empathise.

A child who is read to understands that they are one of many, many children, with different lives and different stories to tell.

And a child who is read to has learnt to understand that they are of sufficient importance for their parents to create a sacred time for them each evening, or each day, to share with them stories.

Yes, I understand that a lot of parents feel that they don't have the time or the language skills to read to their children. But, quite frankly, it's a cop out. I've spent some time teaching English to recent migrants with young kids, and the best advice I can give them is to take their children to their local library each week and borrow 14 books - and read them two per day. No only does this all important down time assist with the emotional challenges of migration, it also brings about a dramatic and rapid improvement in their language skills.

As for the parents who are too busy to read to their children, I suggest they donate their TV to a worthy cause. There are 24 hours in a day, two parents - that's 48 hours, and if between you, you can't spend 15 min of that time them reading to your children you should really rethink the way you live.

Education is the responsibility of all parents, and it doesn't begin with sending them to school, it begins at home, on your knee.