A baby bonus will not be offered to Australian women to help lift declining birth rates.
The Intergenerational Report released on Thursday shows Australia’s total fertility rate is expected to decline from 1.66 babies per woman in 2022/23, to 1.62 babies by the end of the decade.
The report notes a trend where the country's fertility rate has remained below the replacement rate of 2.1 babies per woman since the 1970s.
Asked if the government would consider bringing back the baby bonus after it was scrapped in 2014, Treasurer Jim Chalmers ruled it out.
"The baby bonus served a purpose then in the early 2000s, but the opportunities and the policy levers are different now," he told the National Press Club.
"We've found a better way, I believe, to service the same objective, which is by extending paid parental leave, making early childhood education cheaper so that parents, particularly mums, can work more and earn more if they want to."
Former treasurer Peter Costello in 2004 announced the cash payment for new mums in a bid to lift Australia's falling birthrate, urging people to "have one for mum, one for dad and one for the country”.
The report found overseas-born women tended to live in cities and have lower fertility rates than Australian-born women (1.59 babies per women compared to 1.67).
Major cities also have lower fertility rates, at 1.58 babies per woman, than the national average.
Regional areas had fertility rates of 1.91, with women in remote places recording a rate of 2.01.
The Australian Capital Territory (1.46 per cent) has the lowest fertility rate of any jurisdiction, with the Northern Territory recording the highest (1.8 per cent).
