Australia’s economic challenges are mounting as deaths start to outnumber births. But ‘baby bonus’ policies would be pointless

‘Population growth is expected to slow to just 0.9% over four decades, compared with 1.4% over the past four,’ writes Nicki Hutley. Photograph: Andrew Merry/Getty Images

Politicians are frequently accused of short-termism, so Australia’s intergenerational report (IGR) is unusual in projecting the big trends affecting the economy, and in particular the federal budget, over a 40-year horizon.

The former treasurer Peter Costello introduced the concept of the IGR, now in its seventh edition, shortly after the millennium. The idea was to garner support for budget reforms given the challenges that were coming with an ageing population and a shrinking number of workers needed to support them. Oh, for the good old days when the “boomer bulge” appeared to be the most significant budgetary problem that we faced.