‘Won’t someone please think of the childless?’

LIBERTARIAN senator David Leyonhjelm has praised childless Australians in a speech in the Senate, saying they should receive thanks instead of pity or criticism.

The NSW Senator made his remarks while supporting the government’s bill to remove family payments and childcare subsidies for families that do not immunise their children, which passed the Senate yesterday.

‘‘It’s bad enough

that

people continue to bring wave upon wave of these little blighters into the world,’’ Leyonhjelm said.

‘‘The least they can do is immunise their bundles of dribble and sputum so they don’t make the rest of us sick.’’

Leyonhjelm, who does not have children, said it was time to ask: ‘‘Won’t someone please think of the childless?’’

He said while politicians were ‘‘obsessed’’ with families, many Australian households were childless. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, couples families without children are expected to overtake couples with children during the 2020s. ‘‘To the childless people of Australia, I want to say, on behalf of this Parliament, thank you for being childless.

‘‘You work for more years and become more productive than the rest of Australia. You pay thousands and thousands of dollars more tax than other Australians. You get next to no welfare . . . But you pay when other people get pregnant, you pay when they give birth, you pay when they stay at home to look after their offspring . . .’’ Leyonhjelm said.

The Liberal Democrat said that he was sorry that, instead of receiving thanks, Australians without children were ‘‘often ignored, pitied, considered strange, or even thought of as irresponsible’’.

‘‘For your sake, I hope the children you are forced to support don’t end up as juvenile delinquents, and I hope that they get immunised so that you don’t end up getting sick. ‘‘Because you’ll pay then, too.’’ The Liberal Democrats also want to see family payments restricted, childcare subsidies abolished, and the deregulation of the childcare sector, to cut childcare costs.

They also want to see the government’s paid parental leave scheme – which they see as an ‘‘arbitrary payment’’ – stopped.

‘‘Children generate great joy, warmth, and meaning for their parents. They are a precious gift. What more do you want?’’

David Leyonhjelm