Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

by leave—The Australia many of us grew up in can seem like a different place to the one that exists today.

The pressures of increasing costs of living and too little time are the driving forces in working Australians’ lives. The ways Australians work, live and plan for the future have radically changed. Australians are working harder than ever but they have been seeing little return for their toll. There is less and less time for the things that make us Australian—community, family, friendship—as working Australians are caught up in the daily grind of financial stress and work and family strain.

One of the harsher aspects of these changes relates to the place of children. Children, who all of us know are Australia’s most precious asset and the light that brightens so much of our lives, are increasingly seen as a burden. Children are increasingly being viewed as carrying an impossible level of responsibility and compromise for parents.

Working families are choosing not to have children because they believe the obligations of children exceed their capacity to meet these obligations.

The birth rate has dropped from 3.5 babies per woman in the early 1960s to 1.84 a decade ago. This increased a little to 1.86 babies per woman in 2006. Unfortunately, that is not even at replacement levels.

Research published just last month from the Australian Institute of Family Studies reveals that the ongoing pressures on working families are preventing many women from having children.

Australian families are not having babies—not because they do not want to but because they do not have the confidence to. They do not believe that social and labour force systems will support them if they do have another baby.

The Fertility and family policy in Australia study reveals that fertility rates are at close to the lowest ever level in Australia and are below the level required for population replacement.

We all know that that in itself is not news. Everyone in this House knows that Australia does face a fertility problem. And we are all aware of the potentially damaging long-term economic and social consequences. Australia’s falling fertility rate is a massive challenge that has been facing our country for years. The former government did become aware of the issue: we saw a flurry of reports from them and we were subjected to the repeated battle cry from the member for Higgins that ‘demography is destiny’.

However, for all the chest-thumping that we heard from him, it seems that the former government fundamentally misunderstood the basis of the policy challenge before them.

Measures like the baby bonus did provide some financial support to help with the initial costs of having a baby but unfortunately have not been enough to effectively tackle low fertility rates. More needs to be done.

What the Fertility and family policy in Australia study reveals is that most of the people surveyed actually want to have more children. Very few considered no children or one child their ideal number of children.

Their decision to not have children was also influenced by other factors including difficulties in accessing child care, job insecurity and the cost of housing.

But even in good economic times couples lacked the confidence in their ability to create and maintain a family environment which provided emotional and financial support for children.

Working families do say that they want to have more children. They just do not have confidence in their ability to cope.

What this shows us is that old-style policies and the old ways of doing things certainly have not worked when it comes to addressing this very serious issue. In fact, I think we could say that the old ways of doing things have created a baby-intolerant society.

What we are embarking upon is designing policy settings to support families who want to have children. Working families are crying out for better support, particularly during those life transitions, so that they have the confidence to have children if that is what their choice is.

Support systems need to address the realities of modern Australian life. What it is calling for is fresh ideas and new perspectives on how to tackle this problem.

The new government certainly are not frightened of looking at or testing any of the new ideas that we need to look at. We are prepared to look at the options that should be examined to address what is a very serious challenge facing the nation. We know that if we are to build a stronger future for our country then that is what we will need to do.

Key to that, from our point of view, is making sure that a child centred approach is the way forward for family policy. In my view, the best interests of children must be at the very centre of social and family support. That is why we have been hard at work implementing our election commitments.

In particular, I want to refer today to the referral that the Deputy Prime Minster, the Treasurer and I have made to the Productivity Commission, asking them to examine ways the government can provide improved support to parents, particularly those parents of newborn children. Any policy reforms in this area will be aimed at making sure that we have strong and sustainable economic growth, taking into account our ageing population and the importance of early childhood development and supporting Australian families to balance work and family responsibilities. We do want to explore ways to make it as easy as possible for working mums and dads to balance their employment with the important job of raising a new generation of Australians.

The Productivity Commission is uniquely placed to advise the government on the best way to balance economic considerations with the aspirations of working families. We have asked the Productivity Commission to look at the economic and social costs and the benefits of paid maternity, paternity and parental leave. We certainly know that fertility issues do not start and end with paid maternity or paternity leave. We know that, with the wide variety of families in Australia, there is no one-size-fits-all solution, but it is certainly true that working families do need a range of new options to suit their needs.

The Productivity Commission will conduct a thorough examination of these issues and has been asked to report by February 2009. Public hearings will be held and submissions from the public will also be sought. The government will release the report once it is received. I think it is very important, when we see the findings of the inquiry, that the government is able to act to improve family policy to help build the modern Australia that so many families are looking for.

As I said before, family support must be geared to the best interests of children and to building stronger families. The government is certainly hard at work implementing our commitments and testing ideas to make sure that occurs.

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