The Australian Family Association-sponsored report by Monash researcher Dr Bob Birrell, showing that a growing underclass of low-income males is behind the decline in marriage and fertility, has received widespread coverage by Australia’s major, and many smaller, media outlets. It has also challenged the dominant idea that Australia’s declining fertility is because of insufficient support for working mothers, particularly insufficient child care.Following the…

Plans to commit an extra 500 gigalitres of water for environmental flows in the Murray River should be postponed, a House of Representatives Committee has recommended.Committee chair Kay Elson said the Committee had received a “considerable amount of evidence” questioning the science underpinning the Living Murray initiative of the Murray Darling Basin Commission (MDBC).She said concern had been expressed that the scientific evidence…