Deputy Prime Minister Richard Marles says the government has not discussed reintroducing the baby bonus, as Australia’s fertility rate tumbles to its lowest level since the early days of European settlement.
Marles told Seven’s Sunrise the government was focused on making it more affordable to raise a family, citing a focus on reducing the costs of childcare.
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The Sunrise hosts noted that the fertility rate was now similar to when the baby bonus was introduced, back when then-treasurer Peter Costello asked families to have “one for mum, one for dad, and one for the country”.
Marles was asked if the Australians should still aspire to having more kids, to which he joked that he was a father of four, and therefore had done his bit “plus one”.
“I exceeded Peter Costello’s expectation. I am in credit,” he joked.
“But we want to do what we can to make it easier for families and couples to have children, and we are doing that. It is important that we have a sustainable birth rate.”
Meanwhile, Nationals senator Matt Canavan told Nine’s Today the only areas of Australia where births were meeting the population replacement rate of 2.1 babies per woman were in regional and rural parts of the country.
Canavan has five children.
“Obviously, that’s partly … because housing is a bit cheaper here. So one thing we could do is to encourage Australians to build and develop our country outside just our capital cities,” Canavan said.
“I think if we just keep cramming people into Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, it’s going to be really hard to afford a home and have a family.”
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