The baby bonus is an expensive indulgence
Posted by clubwah on March 14, 2008
I don’t understand why, with the need to slash and burn the budget to bring inflation down, the Rudd Government has guaranteed the baby bonus at the bribe levels introduced by the Howard Government.
What started as a $3000 non-means tested bribe is now set to rise to $5000 for every child born, while at the same time charity organisations like Bonnie Babes, carers and pensioners are bracing themselves to see what the razor gang will take away from them.
While Rudd has said carers will be no worse off he hasn’t ruled out taking away the $1600 bonus they receive and channeling that money into their minuscule monthly payments. Yet everyone gets a few grand in their skyrocket just for having a baby.
After describing the baby bonus as an expensive flop in 2004 Labor are thinking politically, ahead of wisely, by retaining it at a cost of $1.16 billion a year and rising.
I think there should be some sort of payment made to new parents to help with out-of-pocket medical expenses and even to help buy baby things. But surely it should be means tested and reduced to $1500. The government could also give the mother a Healthcare Card regardless of her partner’s income and put money into more child care services.
This would see the money going where its needed and save hundreds of millions of dollars, avoiding the need to slash the few real social welfare services that the Howard Government didn’t destroy.
Mr Rudd described the baby bonus today as important in helping nudge the country’s birthrate - which is important in an increasingly ageing population. But why it is given to people who don’t need it, while people are missing out on other important welfare services and benefits, because their shitty part-time job puts them over a tax threshold that was low in 1995, is an absolutely fucked up state of affairs.
Finally, anyone who won’t have children because the government isn’t paying them to doesn’t deserve to be a parent.
March 16, 2008 at 5:11 pm
When You have kids Wah I bet your attitude to this changes It cost us around 5K in medical bills for a stay in a private hospital and that was a big wedge to find. I don’t think that any one but the most stupid would have a child Just to get 3k but it sure would have come in in handy had our son not been born just days before the baby bonus scheme kicked in…
March 16, 2008 at 10:10 pm
I have two kids, the youngest is 8. We got $800 for one and nothing for the other. We incurred some out of pocket costs because of the private health insurance gap - but you expect that.
The trouble with these bonuses is they’re introduced to buy votes and then people treat them as a God-given right and they’re politically impssible to take away.
As I said, I’m not against some kind of payment. But it does not need to be as high as $5000 and it should be means tested.
March 17, 2008 at 12:28 am
Every time I go over to Albury I see young mothers who I’d almost guarantee had their two kids partly because of the bonus. What is the age limit now?
I agree we need to increase our population but what is the aim of this policy, to keep “Australian” birth rates ahead of the migrant intake? A sort-of new twist on the white Australia policy perhaps.
It’s surely a political policy and there has to be a better way of asssisting new parents than just holding out a carrot.
March 17, 2008 at 4:09 pm
I don’t know a twist on the White Australia Policy Ray - if anything it encourages non whites, wogs and muslims to breed and take over the gun-loving, homphobic, Muslim-bashing Aborigine hating Australian lifestyle that the people who frequent A Western Heart hold dear.
March 18, 2008 at 12:40 am
Rednecks breed too Wah and they’ve got the advantage of having a wide range of partners … at home.