Baby Bonus Increases Birth Rate in Australia
To me it is not surprising the baby bonus increased the birth rate:
FORMER treasurer Peter Costello’s baby bonus could have delivered almost 12,000 extra births, accounting for the surprise jump in Australian fertility rates between 2004 to 2006.
A Melbourne Institute study has found that the controversial bonus succeeded in convincing at least some parents to follow Mr Costello’s exhortation in 2004 to have “one for mum, one for dad, and one for your country”.
Study co-author Mark Wooden said analysis of intentions to have a child and of reported births suggested the baby bonus had increased the fertility rate by 3.2 per cent, The Australian reports.
However, who are the people having most of these kids?
Are they teenagers?:
Australia has the third highest rate of teenage pregnancy in the developed world, following the United States and the United Kingdom. However, rates in Australia have plateaued since the mid 1970s and in the past four years rates have begun to fall. The majority of teenage pregnancy occurs in 18 and 19 year old women. However, in very young women, aged 11-15 years, teenage pregnancy can have detrimental physical consequences as well as life long social and economical sequelae for the mother and child. [Professor Julie Quinlivan]
Or they people like this?
FOURTEEN malnourished children have been hospitalised and a pregnant mother has been charged with neglect after up to 21 starving children were found crammed into one suburban house.
The children’s plight was uncovered after one boy, aged five, was taken to hospital suffering hypothermia and malnutrition. [The Daily Telegraph]
Is the baby bonus worth these types of pregnancies?
The bonus isn’t popularly called the the “plasma bonus” for nothing.
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About The Author
Dobbs
I am a avid hiker with a love for travel and the outdoors. I currently call the Evergreen State of Washington my home.
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You display very poor logic in this post.Firstly, you say ask who are having the kids; then you cite an article stating that teenage pregnency rates in Australia "have plateaued since the mid 1970s and in the past four years rates have begun to fall." Dude, Costello's baby bonus plan was not initiated in the mid 1970s! So tell me how can they have been growing as a direct result of the baby bonus? Furthermore, according to your cited article, teenage pregnancy rates have began to fall in the last four years. Your second example was just one example taken… Read more »
You display very poor logic in this post. Firstly, you say ask who are having the kids; then you cite an article stating that teenage pregnency rates in Australia “have plateaued since the mid 1970s and in the past four years rates have begun to fall.” Dude, Costello’s baby bonus plan was not initiated in the mid 1970s! So tell me how can they have been growing as a direct result of the baby bonus? Furthermore, according to your cited article, teenage pregnancy rates have began to fall in the last four years. Your second example was just one example… Read more »