Anglican Church’s take on population growth: Stop baby bonus

By Dr. Ananya Mandal, MDApr 28 2011

An Anglican Church body has urged authorities to scrap the baby bonus to control population growth. The church's key advisory group wants the Gillard Government to scrap public incentives that increase the birth rate and to cut immigration. It has described population growth as a taboo subject and the “elephant in the room”.

The general synod’s public affairs commission has proposed a halt to “any policy that provides an incentive specifically and primarily to increase Australia's population, notably the baby bonus”. According to spokesman for Melbourne's Anglican diocese headed by Archbishop Dr Philip Freier, a recent resolution by the general synod had asked the Government to carefully consider any such incentive, “while continuing to support low-income families and sustainable immigration”. This resolution also asked the Government to “avoid any reliance on continuing population growth to maintain economic growth”. The submission stems from a discussion paper, prepared for the commission in March last year.

At present $5294 baby bonus is paid to families who earn under $75,000 in the six months after the child's birth. Last year, there were 278,000 payments, including 18,554 in SA. Australian Family Association spokeswoman Terri Kelleher said scrapping the bonus would be unjust and unfair. “Our fertility rate is under replacement level. I don't think families should be discouraged from having more children,” she said. Parent Wellbeing director Jodie Benveniste added that the baby bonus provided “great support” for new mothers and families. “Parents need all the help they can get,” Ms Benveniste said. “The baby bonus does offer a great help for parents when they first have a baby. Having a baby is costly on a family and particularly because you drop an income or you pull back on an income. It would be a mistake to scrap it (baby bonus).”

Archbishop of Adelaide, Jeffrey Driver insisted the church was not calling for the end of the baby bonus. “I believe that the actual debate was about sustainable population for Australia which is an important debate in Australian society,” he said. The Anglican commission's submission also called for increases to paid parental leave.

It said the overall migrant intake should be cut while being more generous to refugees and family reunion applicants. “The question must be asked whether our current and projected population growth is fair to future generations of Australians and to other life in the environments our descendants will have to inhabit…The growing congestion of cities, destined to become worse, means much time lost in commuting, more polluted suburbs, denser housing and the loss for many of suburban gardens in which to relax and still have some communion with nature,” the submission said.

But Labor's junior treasury spokesman David Bradbury says the government has no plans to scrap the $5294 benefit. “The baby bonus, along with the range of other measures that we have in place to support families, they're a package of measures and they are important in providing assistance…When we do have a discussion about sustainable population we do need to acknowledge the challenges of an ageing population,” he said.

Liberal frontbencher Bruce Billson said he was surprised by the Anglicans' proposal. “I would have thought that at a time when we're not even replacing Australians that are passing away by newborn Australians, that attacking the baby bonus is probably the last thing you would do,” Mr Billson said.

The Anglican Bishop of South Sydney, Robert Forsyth, stressed the inquiry submission was not the church's official position. “It's just a commission…It's not the view of the Anglican Church of Australia. It's very important to make that clear…All it said was that the government carefully consider any incentive aimed specifically and primarily towards increasing population.”