← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · darkstar
Thread ID: 13666 | Posts: 4 | Started: 2004-05-12
2004-05-12 09:41 | User Profile
CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australian couples owe it to their country to have more children and should get on with the job, the nation's treasurer said on Tuesday.
"You go home and do your patriotic duty tonight," Peter Costello said when asked by a journalist if he was "the family-friendly treasurer saying get out there and procreate."
In a federal budget handed down on Tuesday, Costello promised $2,083 for every baby born after June as part of a $13.3 billion "family package" to be distributed over five years.
Costello said two youngsters per couple in the nation of 20 million just wasn't adequate.
"If you can have children it's a good thing to do. You should have...one for your husband, one for your wife, and one for your country," Costello said.
"If you want to fix the aging demographic, you're just back to square after two. You make no net improvement," the former-lawyer and father-of-three said.
Some would have to go one step further by having extra children "for your country" to make up the gap left by friends who "aren't even replicating themselves," the Treasurer said.
Reuters, May 11th, 2004
2004-05-12 10:19 | User Profile
The very last thing a country which is 90% desert needs is more people..home-grown or imported.
This is nothing more than a last-gasp attempt to shore up Electoral support ahead of an upcoming Federal Election...and in the process divert attention from the 700 million dollars it is costing to protect potential domestic targets from terrorist attack, thanks to Australian involvement in the disasterous Iraq war.
2004-05-12 12:33 | User Profile
What garbage. You know nothing about potential population density or watering deserts.
Hint: Los Angeles is also a dessert. Los Angeles has a population of 11 million.
[QUOTE=satu largi]The very last thing a country which is 90% desert needs is more people..home-grown or imported.
This is nothing more than a last-gasp attempt to shore up Electoral support ahead of an upcoming Federal Election...and in the process divert attention from the 700 million dollars it is costing to protect potential domestic targets from terrorist attack, thanks to Australian involvement in the disasterous Iraq war.[/QUOTE]
2004-05-12 15:50 | User Profile
Think not in terms of absolute numbers. Australia has plenty of habitable land to support a much larger population than it has.
This initiative is a gesture toward a more stable population. It's futile, of course, but the man's priorites are straight.