Former Prime Minister John Howard has urged Treasurer Jim Chalmers to re-introduce the scheme in Australia, which gave new parents an initial lump sum payment of $3000 per child born, rising to $5000 over time.
The baby bonus policy was delivered in 2004 by then-treasurer Peter Costello following Australia’s lowest-ever birth rate.
At the time, Costello urged parents to “have one for mum, have one for dad and have one for the country”.
The scheme did influence the country’s birth rate and resulted in an average of 2.0 babies born per mother by 2008 and a record 301,617 babies born by 2011, a bigger influx of newborns than the post World War II baby boomer generation.
“Later governments should never have watered down these policies,” Howard said.
“Their restoration or that of equivalent policies will help address the quite disturbing and depressed level in the current fertility rate.”
The Coalition has joined Howard in the call for a new baby bonus scheme.
However Nationals leader David Littleproud said $3000 won’t be enough to support families who can’t afford to feed another mouth.
“I don’t think a baby bonus is going to spur anybody on who just simply cannot financially afford to have a baby,” Littleproud told Today.
“It is vastly different. I remember my sister getting the baby bonus many, many years ago now, and if you’re looking at property prices, inflation, what we were earning versus where we’re at now…
“I’ve got friends who would love to have another child, but when they do the numbers, they know that they actually can’t afford to have another child. And a baby bonus isn’t going to change that for them.”
Australia’s birth rate plummeted in 2023 to levels not seen in 17 years.
The nation’s fertility rate for 2023 hit a record low of 286,998 births – down 4.6 per cent or around 14,000 births from the last year.
