lonegull
02-08-06, 08:05 AM
Border Mail
02/08/2006 Howard calls for more babies
John Howard with the Gold Coast Titans jumper presented to him yesterday. Picture: AAP IMAGE
NOW Prime Minister John Howard wants Australians to go forth and multiply.
?We need more Australian children,? Mr Howard said in a speech at a school on the Gold Coast yesterday, echoing a call made by his Treasurer Peter Costello recently.
The Prime Minister said he was encouraged by statistics showing Australia was reversing the trend of declining fertility rates in the Western world.
The natural fertility rate ? or effectively the number of children a woman has during her lifetime ? has increased in the past year to 1.8 after falling from 3.55 to 1.73 since the 1960s.
Australia has been one of the few developed countries in the world to record an increase.
Other nations, particularly Japan and Russia, are facing huge falls in natural population in coming decades.
In his speech, Mr Howard also said the spiralling cost of petrol was ?burning a hole in everyone?s pocket?.
?But it?s burning a bigger hole in the pocket of people in Europe and North America,? he said.
Jaiden May, the grandson of local federal MP Margaret May, presented Mr Howard with a Gold Coast Titans jersey for his support of the franchise during its successful campaign to be named as the National Rugby League?s 16th team next year.
Titans chairman Paul Broughton said: ?We were going to put his age on the back but we didn?t think that was appropriate.?
02/08/2006 Howard calls for more babies
John Howard with the Gold Coast Titans jumper presented to him yesterday. Picture: AAP IMAGE
NOW Prime Minister John Howard wants Australians to go forth and multiply.
?We need more Australian children,? Mr Howard said in a speech at a school on the Gold Coast yesterday, echoing a call made by his Treasurer Peter Costello recently.
The Prime Minister said he was encouraged by statistics showing Australia was reversing the trend of declining fertility rates in the Western world.
The natural fertility rate ? or effectively the number of children a woman has during her lifetime ? has increased in the past year to 1.8 after falling from 3.55 to 1.73 since the 1960s.
Australia has been one of the few developed countries in the world to record an increase.
Other nations, particularly Japan and Russia, are facing huge falls in natural population in coming decades.
In his speech, Mr Howard also said the spiralling cost of petrol was ?burning a hole in everyone?s pocket?.
?But it?s burning a bigger hole in the pocket of people in Europe and North America,? he said.
Jaiden May, the grandson of local federal MP Margaret May, presented Mr Howard with a Gold Coast Titans jersey for his support of the franchise during its successful campaign to be named as the National Rugby League?s 16th team next year.
Titans chairman Paul Broughton said: ?We were going to put his age on the back but we didn?t think that was appropriate.?