Australia is growing old

World TFR will drop to replacement in just two years, population will peak in three decades and then begin to decline. The time to end population control programs and taxpayer funding for contraception, sterilisation and abortion is now, because it is very difficult if not impossible to reverse population and birth rate decline. Russia is trying with some degree of desperation, France has been trying for years. Neither country has reached a TFR of 2.1

Since 1995, the Japanese government has tried everything to get women to have more babies, including greatly increased child-care benefits and funding for “speed dating”, but without success. This is hardly surprising as people have been told for decades that babies are a burden, and that they interfere with your wants and are bad for the environment.

I know this is not Tony Abbott's view but this is why he needs to include in his policies the mothers who remain out of the paid workforce while their children are pre-school. These are the mothers who have three children or more, the children who are the workers and taxpayers of your future. These single-income families do not benefit from, but pay through their taxes for the paid parental leave policies and child care funding subsidies available to mothers in the paid workforce, but not available to those who care for their own children.

Our population has been increasing because of our generous immigration program, but many of the countries from which our immigrants come also are tending to have low TFRs - Sri Lanka is at 2.17, just slightly above replacement level, while the World Bank estimated Iran's TFR in 2010 ar l.67, well below replacement.

Babies and the taxpayers they grow up to become are a resource that we neglect at our peril.