‘There is a serious problem’: Inside Bob Katter’s controversial $75,000 baby bonus proposal

Bob Katter says infertility remains a “serious problem” after his proposal to pay every mother a $75,000 baby bonus to solve the country’s plunging birth rate drew criticism.

The Queensland MP claimed the cash allowance, along with taxable income splitting, would provide an incentive for conception and fairly compensate mothers for unpaid work, describing working parents as Australia’s “vanishing race”.

Katter said the cost of living and housing crisis are the twin drivers of Australia’s fading birth rate.

“I’m not saying you give a person $75,000 just because I love mums having babies – that’s not the essence of this,” Katter told nine.com.au.

“If you sit down and figure it out, you can’t afford to have children in Australia today for the average person.

“Now isn’t that sad?”

Katter’s proposal is a radical step-up from the Howard-era baby bonus in 2004, which saw families paid $3000 per child at birth, which was later increased to $5000.

In response, Treasurer Jim Chalmers said the government is “very alive to the pressures that people are under” and claimed income splitting would “deny the people it’s designed to help the lion’s share of the benefit.”

Opponents of a baby bonus also say it fails to capture a key reason Australian couples are not having children.

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Women’s coach and fertility mentor Jacquie Mync told nine.com.au that Australia’s falling birth rate – projected to drop to a record low of 1.42 to 1.45 children per woman – is not just a cost of living issue.

“The infertility rate is quite high because they’re not actually able to get pregnant,” Mync explained.

“Even if you dangle the money... a lot of people who really want a baby still won’t be able to have them.

“And that’s not addressing the increasing numbers of women that are choosing to stay single and stay childless because they are not able to find men appropriate for them.”

An estimated one in six Australian couples are unable to conceive without medical intervention, according to the National Institutes of Health (NIH).

Katter acknowledged the fertility crisis facing millions of Australians who want to be parents.

“There is a serious problem there, but you know they have embryos and all that sort of thing now, but there is a serious problem,” Katter said.

“That probably needs to be addressed just as importantly as [the money] enabling people to have children.”

Mync said she expects a payment would temporarily lift birth rates – the 2004 cash bonus brought Australia’s rate to 2.0 within four years.

But she described it as a band-aid solution.

“That can also be quite a grey area. You are throwing money at people and they can choose to use it however they want to use it,” Mync added.

“And just throwing around number like a number like that is definitely a huge incentive for a lot of lower-income families or childless by choice, but that’s still not addressing the root cause of why people aren’t able to get pregnant.”

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Katter accused Chalmers of “throwing the baby out with the bathwater” after his proposal was rejected.

He said families in Australia who cannot make ends meet should be offered money “to spend as they see fit”.

He also claimed that it is not just about the cash.

“It’s the psychological impact of the money,” Katter said.

“But if you don’t do that, then you can say hello Easter Island because there ain’t going to be anyone living here in Australia.”

Katter also denied that he would support any baby bonus figure under $75,000.