Calls for a new baby bonus to reverse Australia’s falling fertility rate have been rejected by experts, who say greater investment in childcare and more flexible work arrangements would do more to support families.
Independent MP Bob Katter has proposed a payment of $75,000 for every new child, after a Treasury report forecast that Australia will record more deaths than births within 40 years.
But Georgie Dent, chief executive of The Parenthood, is expected to argue that direct government funding for childcare centres would be a better response than giving parents a one-off payment.
In a speech to the National Press Club on Wednesday, Ms Dent will call for funding to create more childcare places and reduce costs for families. Conditions would include controls on fees, proper pay for educators and greater transparency.
Figures from The Parenthood indicate that raising one child costs about $17,800 a year, rising to at least $36,500 for multiple children. The organisation says the cost of raising a family has increased by 134 per cent since the baby bonus was introduced, while household income has risen by 103 per cent.
“Meanwhile, the care work itself has not shrunk by a single hour. Babies still wake at night. Meals still need making. Somebody still has to be at the school gate,” Ms Dent will say, according to excerpts of her speech.
She is also expected to highlight the pressure placed on parents when one partner takes time away from paid work. More than half of fathers do not take leave after the birth of their children, including some who would like to, because their families cannot afford it once the mother stops working to care for a baby.
“My husband Nick and I had become parents to exactly the same baby. Yet the world seemed to think we had signed up for entirely different jobs,” Ms Dent will say.
“Mums lose income. Dads lose time. Both lose choice.”
The proposed payment would be a substantial increase on the $3,000 baby bonus introduced more than two decades ago. That scheme produced a slight rise in births, although it was most effective in encouraging families to have a third or fourth child.
Pelin Akyol, research manager at the e61 Institute, said people often wanted more children once they had started a family. However, she said a one-off incentive was unlikely to persuade a new generation to have children in the first place.
“It may increase births for some women over a period, but it is not going to have a long-term effect,” Dr Akyol said.
“If we spend more on a baby bonus, we will spend less on something else, so the opportunity cost is important.”
