Treasurer Jim Chalmers rules out new baby bonus as fertility falls ‘further and faster’
The Treasurer has made a call on one key measure that used to see parents pocketing thousands as fertility rates fall.


News.com.au
September 20, 2026

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out introducing another baby bonus, despite the government expected to forecast “further and faster” falls in fertility.

The next Intergenerational Report (IR), a far-reaching forecast for the economy in the decades to come, is expected to warn of an even more precipitous drop-off in fertility rates when it is released on Monday.

Australia's population growth across the board is expected to slow from an average of 1.4 per cent per year over the past 40 years to 0.9 per cent over the next 40 years, according to an extract of the report.

That is 0.2 percentage points lower growth when compared to the projection period of the 2023 IR, meaning 1.8 million fewer people are projected to be in Australia in 2062-63 than was estimated in that year’s report.

Treasurer Jim Chalmers has ruled out introducing another baby bonus.

By 2065-55, Australian’s population is forecast to reach only 39.3 million.

However, Mr Chalmers told the ABC on Sunday the government was pursuing other measures to give women and families choice, rather than introducing another baby bonus.

“In the IR, we expect fertility rates to fall further and faster than we anticipated even three years ago,” Mr Chalmers said.

“That’s actually one of the biggest influences over the next 40 years or so.”

The Treasurer said almost half of that decline was because “fewer people are having three or more kids”.


“What that reflects is mums having fewer kids later in life. That’s what’s playing out in the fertility rates,” he said.

“ … We think a better way to respond to that with policy, to give families the choice that they need if they want to have more kids or start a family in the first place, is via the early childhood education system, expanding paid parental leave, paying superannuation on paid parental leave.

Queensland MP Bob Katter has in recent days proposed a $75,000 payment to parents to raise a child.   :(

“We think that’s a better combination of policies to deal with this challenge that we have in our society and in our economy.”

Asked whether he was “happy” for migration to fill the void left by declining fertility rates, Mr Chalmers said migration was a “force for good in our communities, in our economy, and our country more broadly”.

“I think one of the main conclusions that people will draw from the IR … (is) that there is an important role for migration if it’s well managed,” he said.

The baby bonus was reintroduced in the 2002 budget as a way of offsetting the growing cost of raising a child in Australia.


The lump sum payment was, however, removed in 2014 following a significant cut and instead replaced with Centrelink family assistant payments.

Those payments are subject to means testing.

Renegade Queensland MP Bob Katter has in recent days proposed a $75,000 payment to parents to raise a child in a bid to boost the birthrate.   :(

If you cant afford kids, then don't have them.   :( 

No jobs, no earning, for humans in the future, so no requirement for a human population. 

Besides, with climate collapse, and a likely global food chain collapse, the planet's going to be hostile to humans by then.

whiteknight wrote on Sep 20^th, 2026 at 8:26pm:

If you cant afford kids, then don't have them.   :(

Try telling that to the unemployed parents who have extra money every time they pop out a new child.