Pieces of Flair

Aussies do it down under

Channeling Big Brother, Australian treasurer Peter Costello is urging his fellow citizens to turn off the telly and initiate replication:

"'You go home and do your patriotic duty tonight,' Peter Costello said when asked by a journalist if he was 'the family-friendly treasurer saying get out there and procreate.'

"In a federal budget handed down on Tuesday, Costello promised $2,083 for every baby born after June as part of a $13.3 billion 'family package' to be distributed over five years.

"Costello said two youngsters per couple in the nation of 20 million just wasn't adequate.

"'If you can have children it's a good thing to do. You should have...one for your husband, one for your wife, and one for your country,' Costello said.

"'If you want to fix the aging demographic, you're just back to square after two. You make no net improvement,' the former-lawyer and father-of-three said.

"Some would have to go one step further by having extra children 'for your country' to make up the gap left by friends who 'aren't even replicating themselves,' the Treasurer said."