ANU study says childbirth delayed for baby bonus

CT article today points out that even Bangladesh has better maternity leave conditions than Australia.

thats fine just don’t give them money for it. I couldn’t care less if they induced, aborted whatever. (apart from the fact I believe abortion should be mandatory).

So six hundred women decided to delay childbirth to get some more money? Good luck to them. I delayed being induced for my second so I could pick my Dad up from the airport, and there wasn’t even any cash involved.

Basically, decisions on when to have your c-section or be induced are private decisions made on the basis of medical advice … if the doctor is happy to leave it up to the mother, then the mother gets to make the call. Really, would you ask someone why they decided to get their wisdom teeth out on a Tuesday?

Thumper, I guess it depends on how you feel about a continually declining birth rate. I’m not saying that we need a high birth rate – I personally would be happy to top up our population with migration. But if you want women to have babies, you have to address the reasons why they’re choosing not to, and finances are one of those reasons.

Joshua Gans (Uni of Melb) and Andrew Leigh (ANU) have a paper out called “Born (Again) on the First of July: Another Experiment in Birth Timing” which statistically analyses the birth data around the time of the baby bonus increment, and comes to the conclusion that around 600 births were moved to take advantage of it.

Even better than paid maternity leave would be a paid parental leave scheme. Where there is equal respect for families where mum is primary parent, where dad is the primary parent, or where they split the workload between them.

And the baby bonus does nothing to alleviate the real cause of our low birth-rate: lack of quality, affordable childcare, and lack of respect in society for combining children and career. Women who work for over a decade, then have a baby in their mid to late 30’s, may not want to want to stop dead in their career tracks.

are you a man if you don’t want to have a child!?!

Are you a woman if you do not want to have a child?

Maternity leave would go to those who had been paying taxes, and would again. Baby bonus goes to all alike – junkies and millionaire housewives included.
Bribery more than policy.

There’s a whole generation who thinks that they are entitled to others’ taxes because they’ve made a lifestyle decision. No matter how highly they are paid, they are entitled to Family Tax B, Breeder Bribe, subsidised childcare, ‘disabled” parking adn god knows what else. It’s getting a bit out of control.

As overpopulation takes its toll on our environment, I think that more who are being bled to pay for this will start to object.