Australia pays mums $3,000 baby bonus

THE Australian government is offering women A$3,000 (€1,700) to have babies in an effort to boost its flagging population.

And the maternity bonus is set to climb to A$5,000, (€2,800) by 2008.

The payment came into effect at midnight yesterday, and doctors at several city hospitals said some women were delaying planned caesarean sections until after the midnight cut-off.

The baby bonus is not means-tested and will be paid to all mothers, or primary care-givers, even if they do not pay tax or don’t have an income.

Glen Sargent, a school principal in Sydney, criticised the payment and said it would encourage teenagers at his school to fall pregnant.

However, family researcher Dr Catherine Hakim, credited with influencing Prime Minister John Howard’s decision to introduce the baby bonus, said the payment would have to be at least 10 times more generous before it could begin to have any effect on fertility rates.

“It’s about stg£1,000, which in Britain is a trivial sum. I’d be surprised if it had much of an impact. I think you could easily move towards £10,000 in English money and that would still be nominal in recognition, although it might be more influential,” Dr Hakim said.

Dr Hakim said Australia was one of a number of countries with declining birth rates which would have to take a much more serious approach to incentives for women to have babies.

“What has happened recently is that the rewards and benefits of paid employment for women have hugely increased relative to the wages of motherhood.

“So far, in most societies, it’s just been taken for granted that women will have children. It’s a male attitude, in my view, that women will just do it anyway,” she said.

Australia is not the first country to introduce birth incentives. Last November, Mayor Rocco Falivena of Laviano, an Italian town with around 3,000 residents, offered couples €10,000 for every newborn baby.

In 1970 there were 70 babies born in the town, but in 2002, there were just four. “It’s a lot of money, but this is our top priority,” said Mr Falivena. “We are talking about the very survival of our town.”

Italy has the lowest fertility rate in Europe at 1.24, well below the EU average 1.47. Ireland has the highest fertility rate at 1.98, but our birth rate has declined significantly over the last number of decades. The fertility rate in Ireland was 3.26 in the 1950s and reached a high of 4.06 in 1964. In 1983 the fertility rate was 2.76, and just 20 years later, the rate in 2003 was 1.98.

Looks like Charlie McCreevy might have to start dreaming up birth bonuses, as well as pension schemes and SSIAs.