There will be no silver bullet solution to turning around Australia’s plummeting birth rates. This is because the problem is multi-faceted and driven by financial, political and, perhaps most importantly, psycho-social factors – namely a society that no longer values children and family as it once did.

A recent column in the Sydney Morning Herald by Liberal Party adviser Charlotte Mortlock has suggested government initiatives aimed at lifting falling birth rates fail because they come with one crucial trade-off: spending less time with children.