Budget 2024: Jim Chalmers declares he wants couples to have more children during a cost of living crisis – but here’s the one thing he won’t do
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has declared he wants Australian couples to have more children β even during a cost-of-living crisis.
Because Australia has a low fertility rate, the father of three said larger families should be encouraged.
βWe want to make it easier for people to have larger families if they want to, and that’s why we’re making huge investments in early childhood education,β he said Friday.
But Dr Chalmers ruled out a revival of the old baby bonus, which provided $5,000 per eligible child a decade ago β more than $8,000 in today’s figures.
βWe’ve found a better way to support people who make that choice,β he said.
‘I know that some people cannot afford to have more children, I know that people will make their own choices and I do not for a moment pretend that the government should direct those choices.’
Treasurer Jim Chalmers has stated he wants Australian couples to have more children, even during a cost-of-living crisis (he is pictured, left, with wife Laura and their three children Jack, Leo and Annabel)
Dr. Chalmers has hinted that instead of the baby bonus, his third budget would look at making paid parental leave more generous, citing the work of Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth.
βThat’s why Katy and I are working so closely together with Amanda Rishworth to ensure we can expand paid parental leave and pay for the pension guarantee,β he said.
Former Liberal Treasurer Peter Costello introduced a $3,000 lump sum baby bonus in July 2004, declaring that parents should have “one for mom, one for dad and one for the country.”
But his Labor successor Wayne Swan scrapped the baby bonus in his last budget in May 2013, when it stood at $5,000.
Dr. At the time, Chalmers was chief of staff to Mr Swan, who had married Laura Anderson, a former ministerial media adviser to Penny Wong, two months earlier.
The treasurer said Australia would benefit from “healthy birth rates” and the government’s aim was to make it easier to start families if they wanted to.
The old baby bonus had increased Australia’s fertility rate from 1.73 in 2001 to 1.88 in 2011.
But by 2021 it had fallen to 1.7, after hitting a record low of 1.59 during the pandemic in 2020.
Dr. Chalmers ruled out reviving the old baby bonus, which a decade ago gave $5,000 to a new mother having a child – or more than $8,000 in today’s money (he is pictured in his Brisbane electorate office in 2022 with his children Jack, Annabel and Leo)
Dr. Chalmers has hinted that instead of the baby bonus, his third budget would look at making paid parental leave more generous, pointing to the work of Finance Minister Katy Gallagher and Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth (the Treasurer is pictured in May 2023 while hugging his daughter Annabel). after delivering his second Budget while wife Laura watches)
The Ministry of Finance’s Intergenerational Report predicts that fertility will fall to 1.62 in 2032/2033, compared to 1.66 in 2022/2023.
This would make Australia even more dependent on immigration as its population grew older, meaning the government would have to tax more people of working age.
Personal income taxes made up 45 percent of the Commonwealth’s $618.2 billion in revenue last fiscal year.
Paid parental leave debuted in January 2011, and now the federal government pays for 20 weeks of leave β increasing to 26 weeks starting in 2026.