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23 September 2026

Invest $5,000 at Birth Instead of a Baby Bonus, Pronatalism Australia Says

Pronatalism Australia has called on the Australian Government to invest $5,000 at birth for every Australian child, after Treasurer Jim Chalmers said on Monday that a return to the Howard-era baby bonus was “not on the cards”.

The organisation said its ‘Babyannuation’ proposal – akin to superannuation for young families – would cost a fraction of the payments now being argued over, and would still be working generations from now.

Under the Babyannuation scheme the Government would place $5,000 in a low fee investment account for every newborn, have it compound over 30 years, which the recipient could then draw on once they have a child of their own.

Founder Andrew Glover said the debate since the Intergenerational Report had narrowed to cash bonuses or childcare subsidies, with nothing structural in between.

“Katter’s Australian Party wants to give $75,000 to new parents and the Government has ruled out handing over anything,” Mr Glover said. “A baby bonus can be abolished after an election cycle, but an invested account in a child’s name is much harder to take away.”

With around 300,000 births a year, the scheme would cost about $1.5 billion annually, in contrast to the $22 billion estimated for Katter’s Australian Party scheme.

“Five thousand dollars invested at birth and growing at six per cent is worth around $29,000 at age 30, which is about the age Australians are having their first child,” Mr Glover said. “That is serious money arriving when it is needed, for a fifteenth of the cost.”

Mr Glover said childcare arrived too late to affect whether a first child happened at all.

“Childcare helps parents who already have children. It does very little for a couple living in a rental who cannot see how they would afford the first one,” Mr Glover said. “The decisions that set Australia’s birth rate get made years before anyone looks at a childcare fee.”

Pronatalism Australia called on the Government to commission modelling on the idea.

“Superannuation helps Australians prepare for retirement. Babyannuation would help them prepare for a family,” Mr Glover said.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

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22 September 2026

Make Fertility a National Priority, Pronatalism Australia Says After Intergenerational Report

Pronatalism Australia has called for raising the fertility rate to be made a national priority, and for major policy to be assessed for its effect on family formation, after Monday’s Intergenerational Report projected for the first time that deaths will outnumber births from the 2060s.

Founder Andrew Glover said fertility could no longer be treated as a background assumption.

“We assess major policy for its economic effects and its environmental effects, but we don’t assess it for whether it makes having children harder or easier,” Mr Glover said. “Policies like stamp duty, student debt repayment thresholds and the mix of apartment sizes a council approves are all fertility policy in effect, but nobody making those decisions is ever asked to see them that way.”

The organisation proposes adding Fertility Impact Assessments to the policy development process, so that significant proposals disclose their likely impact on family formation before reaching Cabinet.

Australia’s total fertility rate has fallen from 2.02 children per woman in 2008 to a record low of 1.48 in 2024. The report projects a further fall to 1.34 by 2065–66.

“We have gone from two children per woman to under one and a half in just sixteen years, and the fall is projected to continue,” Mr Glover said. “Migration will keep the population growing on paper, but creating the conditions for Australians to have children of their own should now be a core priority for the nation.”

The Intergenerational Report attributes the decline to longer education and later career establishment, young adults remaining in the family home for longer, and the postponement of partnership and childbearing.

“Australians are having to make the decision to have children later and later, or not at all, which means we aren’t replacing ourselves as a nation,” Mr Glover said. “But fertility decline isn’t inevitable. We can change course and support the creation of the next generation.”

Much of the political debate since the report’s release has turned on single instruments, with the return of a baby bonus and the further expansion of childcare each put forward as the answer.

“A baby bonus and subsidised childcare can be part of the response to fertility decline, but neither of them is a comprehensive strategy. Treasury has given us forty years of warning, but the moment to act is now,” Mr Glover said.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

20 September 2026

Migration Can’t Replace a Falling Birth Rate, Pronatalism Australia Tells Treasurer

Pronatalism Australia has responded to comments by Treasurer Jim Chalmers that Australia’s falling fertility rate shows there is “an important role for migration”. The organisation said the government should instead be asking why Australians are having fewer children than they want, and what it can do to help.

Founder Andrew Glover said the Treasurer had drawn the wrong lesson from the Intergenerational Report’s projections.

“The answer to a falling birth rate isn’t more immigration. It’s a rising birth rate,” Mr Glover said. “Australians still want children, and the government’s job is to make sure they can have them.”

Speaking on Sunday Agenda, Mr Chalmers said fertility was “coming off further and faster than was anticipated even a few years ago” and that migration “will be a force for good”. His comments followed projections from the Intergenerational Report that Australia’s fertility rate will fall to 1.34 children per woman by 2065–66 – an optimistic scenario given recent trends.

Australia’s fertility rate stood at 2.02 children per woman in 2008. By 2024 it had fallen to a record low of 1.48, a drop of more than half a child per woman in just 16 years.

“Fertility decline isn’t a mystery. Young Australians are delaying or forgoing children because housing is out of reach, the cost of raising a family keeps climbing and they don’t have adequate support. Many also feel too uncertain about the future to commit. Governments can do something about all of that,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia said migration can support the economy in the short term, but leaves the underlying causes of low fertility untouched.

“Migration is a band-aid. It can temporarily fill some gaps in the workforce, but it can’t fill a gap between the generations. Without structural reform that makes it easier to start and raise a family, Australia has no path to intergenerational continuity,” Mr Glover said.

The organisation also warned that fertility is now falling rapidly in most of the countries Australia recruits from, making ever-higher migration an unreliable foundation for the economy.

“Every country should take responsibility for producing its own next generation. Australia has been increasingly relying on others to do that job for us,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia called on the government to treat fertility as a core economic and social priority in the Intergenerational Report, including by assessing major policy for its effect on family formation and having children.

“Low fertility has causes, and causes can be addressed. The Intergenerational Report should be the moment the government starts,” Mr Glover said.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

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15 September 2026

Pronatalism Australia Welcomes Katter’s Focus on Australia’s Birth Rate

Pronatalism Australia has welcomed Katter’s Australian Party’s call for a $75,000 payment for every birth, announced on 11 September, as a sign that Australia’s falling birth rate is finally being treated as a national issue. The organisation, which takes no partisan position, said the intent behind the proposal mattered more than the specific figure attached to it.

Founder Andrew Glover said few politicians were willing to discuss the country’s demographic future with this kind of ambition.

“Australia’s birth rate has been falling dramatically for the past 15 years and it barely rates a mention in Canberra. Mr Katter has helped to make it a national conversation, and that kind of long-range thinking deserves encouragement.” Mr Glover said.

The organisation said the proposal recognised something families already know. Young Australians deciding whether to start a family, or to have another child, are squeezed at the worst possible moment. Housing costs, insecure early-career pay and student debt all have to be managed in the same decade as the decision.

“People have children at the age when they can least afford them, and increasingly they’re putting it off until they’re more financially secure – or opting out altogether,” Mr Glover said. “Young Australians also need to hear that having children matters to this country, and that the nation will back them when they do.”

On cost, Mr Glover said there were cheaper ways to put serious money behind family formation over the long term. Katter’s Australian Party puts its birth payment at around $22 billion a year. Alternatively, Pronatalism Australia’s ‘Babyannuation’ proposal would invest $5,000 for every newborn, at about $1.5 billion a year, released when that child becomes a parent.

“You don’t need $22 billion a year to make a real difference,” Mr Glover said. “Invest $5,000 at birth, let it grow like superannuation, and it’s worth close to $30,000 by the time someone is working out whether they can afford a baby.”

Pronatalism Australia said it would support good family policy from any party, and called on the Government and the Opposition to cost the idea rather than dismiss it.

“We’d rather discuss how to pay for it than pretend fertility decline isn’t a problem.” Mr Glover said.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

25 August 2026

Australia cannot outsource its demographic future as global fertility falls

For the first time in recorded history, the human population is no longer replacing itself.

New research from the University of Pennsylvania finds that global fertility has most likely fallen below replacement level during 2026, decades earlier than United Nations projections assumed.

Pronatalism Australia says the finding removes a key assumption of Australian population planning, that there will always be young people born elsewhere who are willing and able to move here.

Founder Andrew Glover said the logic holding Australia’s population policy together no longer works.

“Every migrant that moves to Australia has to be born somewhere. When fertility is falling almost everywhere, and faster than many demographers expected, that cannot be our long-term demographic strategy.”

Australia’s total fertility rate fell to 1.48 births per woman in 2024, around 30 per cent below the replacement level of approximately 2.1. Net overseas migration contributed around 73 per cent of total growth in the year 2025.

Some of the most drastic recent falls in fertility have been in middle income countries, defying expectations that they will supply the world’s young workers, and Australia’s, for decades to come.

“Many poorer countries invest significantly in the upbringing, schooling, and training of their people, then Australia recruits them at the moment they become productive adults. The ethics of that arrangement are harder to defend when those countries’ fertility rates are falling faster than ours and will need those workers themselves,” Mr Glover said.

“Many countries have recently learnt of the vulnerability created by outsourcing too much of their industrial capacity, and we have been doing the demographic equivalent. A country that cannot reproduce itself becomes dependent on the reproductive capacity of other countries, and the new global figures tell us that capacity is shrinking quickly.”

“Migration can complement a healthy Australian population. But it cannot be a permanent substitute for Australians being able to form families and have children,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia says Australia should treat the restoration of fertility towards replacement level as a core national objective, and should set about removing the economic, housing, workplace and cultural barriers that stop Australians having the families they truly want.

“Australia should do its part to respond to global fertility decline. We should aim to produce and raise future generations rather than assuming indefinitely that other nations will do it for us,” Mr Glover said.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

15 August 2026

Census creates decade-long gap in family size data as fertility rate hits record low

Pronatalism Australia has called on the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Government to restore the Census question on the number of children a woman has ever given birth to, and keep it on a five-yearly cycle. The question was not asked at the 2026 Census on 11 August this year. Last collected in 2021, it will not be collected again until 2031.

The ABS accepted during its topic review this year that “there is a data need”, but judged the case for collecting it every Census weaker than for other topics.

Founder Andrew Glover disagrees.

“A ten-year cycle for this question made sense when fertility was higher and moved slowly. It is much harder to justify a ten-year gap when the fertility rate has dropped to its lowest level on record and continues to fall”.

Pronatalism Australia points to the ABS’s own forecasting record that underestimated the rate of fertility decline the country has experienced recently. The lowest of three scenarios in its 2018 population projections assumed fertility would settle at 1.65 babies per woman by 2027. Australia was already below that in 2024, at 1.48.

“Australia’s fertility rate has dropped much faster than the ABS thought it could. This demonstrates the need for high quality data on this issue that only the Census provides”, Mr Glover said.

“We do not just need to know how many babies were born last year. We need to understand who is managing to form the family they want, who is not, and what circumstances go with having fewer children than hoped for.”

Birth registrations produce the annual fertility rate, a snapshot of one year with little detail. The Census records how many children women have actually had so far in their lives, alongside age, location, education, income, employment, housing and migration. It also lets researchers see how the same birth cohorts look at successive Censuses, showing how much delayed childbearing is impacting fertility statistics.

Pronatalism Australia wants a commitment to collecting the topic in 2031 and every five years afterwards.

“When the demographic picture changes this fast, our priorities need to change with it,” Mr Glover said.

“Whatever else Australia chooses to count, how many children Australians actually have should be measured at every Census. We cannot hope to turn around declining fertility if we only choose to collect our best data once a decade.”

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

7 July 2026

Pronatalism Australia Calls for Family Formation Literacy in Australian Schools

Pronatalism Australia is calling on state and federal education authorities to introduce Family Formation Literacy into Australian secondary schools, giving young people structured preparation for parenthood and family life alongside the prevention-focused sexual health education they already receive. In a new discussion paper released today, the organisation argues that schools prepare students for almost every domain of adult life except one of the most consequential: becoming a parent.

The paper describes a longstanding asymmetry in the curriculum. Where reproduction is taught, it is framed overwhelmingly through prevention, covering contraception, sexually transmitted infections and consent. What students rarely encounter is any structured account of what family life involves, why it matters, or how to prepare for it. Founder Andrew Glover said the imbalance was difficult to defend at a time of falling birth rates.

“As our birth rate falls, we increasingly hope that young people will go on to start families of their own. Yet we spend far more effort teaching them how to avoid becoming parents than preparing them for how to become one,” Mr Glover said. “We seem to expect young people to simply absorb the reasons for having a family, without ever equipping them for it.”

The discussion paper proposes embedding family formation content into existing subjects rather than creating a new one. It recommends teaching the realities and rewards of raising children within health education, evidence-based fertility literacy covering age-related decline and the limits of assisted reproduction, and life-course planning within careers education that considers children and caregiving alongside study, work and housing. The paper notes that Singapore, Japan and Finland already teach elements of family and caregiving competence in their schools.

“Many Australians underestimate how early fertility begins to decline, and by the time they find out their options have often narrowed,” Mr Glover said. “Students deserve an accurate picture of their own biology, and an honest sense of the deep and lasting rewards of family life, which for most parents far outweigh its demands.”

Pronatalism Australia stresses that the proposal is non-coercive, politically neutral and respectful of those who choose not to have children. The organisation has released the paper for public consultation and is inviting responses from educators, parents and policymakers on how schools might better prepare young people for caregiving and family life.

“A society should not be surprised when family formation weakens if it prepares young people for almost everything except that,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia’s full discussion paper, Family Formation Literacy, is available at pronatalismaustralia.org/policy-papers/family-formation-literacy.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: www.pronatalismaustralia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

22 June 2026

Pronatalism Australia Calls for Clarity from One Nation on Family Policy

Pronatalism Australia has called on Pauline Hanson and One Nation to clarify their position on family policy, following Senator Hanson’s National Press Club address in which she questioned the case for paid parental leave.

Founder Andrew Glover said the speech raised concerns about parental leave but also praised One Nation tax policies that could materially help families.

“If Australia is serious about lifting its birth rate, we should stop treating the work of raising children as economically invisible. Paid parental leave is an important part of our demographic infrastructure, not just a workplace perk.” Mr Glover said.

During the Press Club Q&A, Senator Hanson questioned why business should pay employees who are not at work. Pronatalism Australia said this misreads both the value of early parenthood and the design of Australia’s government-funded scheme.

“Supporting childbearing means reducing the accumulated costs of parenthood, not adding to them. Any rollback of paid parental leave would push us in the wrong direction,” Mr Glover said.

On tax policy, Pronatalism Australia commended One Nation’s proposal for household income splitting, which would allow couples with a dependent child to combine and divide their income for tax purposes. The organisation described it as one of the more family-friendly structural reforms in Australian politics, easing the penalty on single-income families and reducing the need for delayed childbearing.

“Income splitting recognises the family as an economic unit and removes a real disadvantage faced by parents who choose to care for their own children. That approach deserves cross-party support,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia, which takes no partisan position, said the coming period offered One Nation an opportunity to set out a consistent pro-family agenda rather than a mixed set of signals.

“We will commend good family policy wherever it comes from, and question it wherever it falls short. What prospective Australian families need now is clarity.”

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org.au
Web: [www.pronatalismaustralia.org.au](https://www.pronatalismaustralia.org.au)

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

3 June 2026

Australia Has Added Another Million People — But Its Demographic Deficit Deepens

Australia’s population has reached 28 million people, according to new Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates. But beneath the headline milestone lies a growing demographic deficit: Australia is experiencing record-low fertility while relying increasingly on migration for population growth.

At the current fertility rate of 1.48 births per woman, each generation of Australians is producing around 30 per cent fewer children than needed for replacement. Because these effects compound over time, today’s fertility rate means the generations of children born to Australians will become drastically smaller over the decades ahead — particularly if it declines even further.

Andrew Glover, founder of Pronatalism Australia, said the latest figures demonstrate why headline population growth should not be confused with demographic renewal.

“Australia has added another million people, but our demographic deficit continues to deepen,” Mr Glover said.

“Many Australians would be surprised to learn that we are now producing only around 70% of the children needed for long-term replacement. That represents a significant erosion in generational renewal occurring beneath the surface of continued population growth.”

ABS figures released earlier this year showed that net overseas migration accounted for 73% of Australia’s population growth, while natural increase accounted for just 27%.

“Migration can increase a country’s population size, but it does not address the underlying reasons Australians are having fewer children,” Mr Glover said.

“For too long, population growth has allowed us to avoid a more difficult conversation about fertility decline, delayed family formation, housing affordability, economic insecurity and the broader conditions facing young families.”

Pronatalism Australia is calling for greater public awareness of fertility decline and a renewed focus on the cultural, economic and social factors that influence family formation.

“Population growth tells us whether Australia is getting bigger. Fertility tells us whether Australia is replacing itself,” Mr Glover said.

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

2 June 2026

Pronatalism Australia Welcomes 26 Weeks Paid Parental Leave

Pronatalism Australia has welcomed the full implementation of Australia’s expanded Paid Parental Leave scheme, which now provides eligible families with up to 26 weeks of leave, including superannuation contributions.

Founder Andrew Glover said the reform represents a positive investment in Australian families and the nation’s future.

“Giving parents more time with their newborn children reduces financial pressure and allows families to focus on what matters most during the earliest months of life,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia noted that the inclusion of superannuation contributions is particularly significant, recognising that time spent raising children contributes to society and should not come at the expense of retirement savings.

“The inclusion of superannuation is an important recognition that caring for children creates value not just for families, but for society as a whole,” Mr Glover said.

Pronatalism Australia noted that the benefits of parental leave extend beyond workforce participation and economic outcomes.

“Strong attachment between parents and children during infancy is associated with a range of positive developmental outcomes,” Mr Glover said.

“Policies that support parents to spend time with their young children should be viewed as an investment in Australia’s future wellbeing.”

While welcoming the reform, Pronatalism Australia said further action would be needed to address Australia’s declining fertility rate and make family formation easier and more desirable for future generations.

“This is a step in the right direction,” Mr Glover said.

“Building a more family-friendly Australia will require a broader conversation about the economic, cultural and institutional barriers that prevent many Australians from having the families they truly want.”

Media Contact

Andrew Glover, Founder, Pronatalism Australia
Email: info@pronatalismaustralia.org
Web: [www.pronatalismaustralia.org](https://www.pronatalismaustralia.org)