Sooner or later Humankind as a whole is going to have to realize that in a finite world we cant go on endlessly increasing our numbers.
Put in another way Humankind as a whole has a very real overpopulation problem.
If we dont start to limit our numbers then the planetary system will do it for/to us in unspeakably dreadful ways. And on a humungously enormous scale.

The very real concept of ecological footprint has a relentless and inescapable logic to it.
How many extra planets would it take for every one on the planet to live in a McMansion with 3-4 cars in the driveway?

great article - agree completely

This is an awfully simplistic way to look at things. To start with there is no mention of the current child endowment payments available, which are tax-free and can add up to significant amounts on an annual basis.

To introduce policies to encourange more women full stop to have children will simply mean more poorer women having children. I suggest that financial capacity is not the major reason why middle-class women have fewer children.

If we dont meet rplacement rates ourselves, then we import people, as we are doing now. This provides a workforce that payes taxes to support our aging population.

The argument about ferrying kids around to different sports activities is spurious. If its too hard on parents, take turns with other parents - you dont have to watch EVERY match little Johnnie plays. Or, make all your kids choose the one sport (this is how it was dealt with in my family).

Might I also suggest that the issues raised re private school fees is pretty out there too. All parents get some level of childcare assistance, but for the higher income families (you know, the educated ones with less kids), its pretty minimal. Then compare the costs of average private school fees to childcare fees. I doubt there is much difference unless you are trying to send your kids to Kings or the like, or they are boarding. Certainly sending my kids to the local Catholic school is going to be a LOT cheaper than childcare, even after the rebates.

Many people are having less children for a combination of reasons. One reason is a lack of job security. Another is an individualist self centred culture where children are an inconvenience rather than an asset. Another reason is the decline of marriage. A lot of these reasons come from the male side of the equation. A lot of Australian men cannot stand the thought of the responsibilty associated with looking after a child.

Regarding the comment about overpopulation. Australia is not overpopulated, our population does not have natural increase. Overpopulation is a problem in other parts of the world - India, Nigeria, Mexico etc.

Felicity asks:
"Are these women not deserving of government support to defray the cost of raising a child?"
The answer is that nobody deserves somebody else's money. Felicity's foundational premise is socialism: take from whomever to give to whomever. She simply masks the transfer with "government", as though the government gets its money from the money tree out back of parliament house. Typical socialist ploy.
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And her implied corollary is the erroneous notion that persons must support the existence of mankind:

In the case where the mankind in question is simply a sum of all persons currently extant, such notion is redundant.

In the case where the mankind in question belongs to some future point in time and therefore is not necessarily constituted of today's persons, such notion is to subvert the infinite value of existing persons to the ethereal and erroneous notion that mankind as a phenomenon has an eternal, intrinsic, value. Given that every single person who will ever exist will expire forever, there is necessarily no intrinsic value in the corporate entity that is "mankind".

So Felicity needs to do a little more thinking, and then needs to encourage mothers who choose to have children, to pay for them with their own money.

If you are only going to have children when the Government support you I suggest forget about it. I have never heard of anything more ridiculous.Take a look at kids in Sudan and you might get some perspective. My parents never have never owned a home and raised five on a small income with little government support. I am glad they decided to have us.

The appalling state of public schools has nothing to do with money. It has everything to do we failed philosophies. When r we ever going to stop blaming the lack of funding for everything from broken down schools (spiritually) to not having babies.

One way to encourage women to have babies is to appreciate motherhood as a profession rather than a nuisance to the economic well being of the family.