A former AFL player and radio star has unloaded on Generation Z and millennial Australians, calling them “selfish” for not having children, and his unscripted rant baffled his co-host.
Former Adelaide Crows star Stephen Rowe let loose at Adelaide 5AA on Wednesday after broadcaster Stacey Lee read Australian Bureau of Statistics data revealing Australia’s birth rate had plummeted to just 1.5 children per woman.
“That tells me how selfish our society is,” he said.
‘In my time, you fell in love with a beautiful woman. You kept a full-time job, you had fun in the evenings, you had a baby.
‘You either rented or bought a house. You worked hard, in fact you came to work and you worked hard. They built a life and a family together and everything else was insignificant.
“Nowadays, I have to have the holidays, the Instagram account, I have to have the clothes and I have to go to the Adelaide Cup, the Melbourne Cup, this cup. I see it in my children.”
Lee intervened and said younger Australians couldn’t afford housing, which she said was the real cause of the sharp decline in family formation.
FIVEaa radio star and former Adelaide Crows player Stephen Rowe has criticized younger Australians as “selfish” for being too worried to have children.
Rowe says young Australians are more worried about social media, buying clothes and going on holiday than starting a family (file image)
“Nowadays you can’t afford a mortgage on one income… that’s not an option for my generation,” he said.
‘How about living within your means?’ Rowe said in response.
‘Only buy a house you can afford.
‘I think modern people are selfish. Yes. You want all these things and you want them all today. You (Lee) are like my children.
“Dude, fall in love, have a baby and everything will work itself out because you’re in love and you have a baby.”
Rowe made headlines earlier this year with the claim that Australia is so overgoverned that the country is producing a “weaker race” of people. Rowe also got caught in an unfortunate microphone mistake during his 5AA driving show.
The ABS data, published on Wednesday, revealed a steady decline in birth rates since the early 1990s, although there was some increase in the early and mid-2000s.
In 2023, 286,998 births were recorded in Australia, resulting in a total fertility rate of 1.5 babies per woman, the ABS said.
Rowe (pictured) was reacting to new Australian Bureau of Statistics figures showing the country’s fertility rate has fallen to 1.5 babies born per woman.
In 1993, the TFR was 1.86.
“The low total fertility rate is because there were fewer births in most states and territories,” said ABS head of vital statistics Beidar Cho.
‘The long-term decline in fertility of younger mothers, as well as the continued increase in fertility of older mothers, reflect a shift toward later motherhood.
“Taken together, this has resulted in an increase in the average age of mothers to 31.9 years and a fall in Australia’s total fertility rate.”
Pollster Kos Samaras said Australia’s falling birth rate “should not come as a surprise”.
“54 percent of the 18- to 34-year-olds we interviewed tell us they don’t plan to have children,” he wrote in X on Thursday.
‘The main drivers? Cost – housing.’
A replacement fertility rate is 2.1 children per woman.
Declining birth rates are a common feature throughout the developed world.
Italy’s fertility rate is 1.2, according to the European nation’s statistics agency, while Canada’s has fallen to 1.26.
Rowe’s co-presenter Stacey Lee (pictured) said he was being too harsh on younger Australians, whose options are limited because they cannot afford housing.
Lee reacted with bewilderment to Rowe’s outburst.
“I’m a woman in her 30s who doesn’t have children and you just called me selfish,” she said.
Rowe did not retreat from his position.
“I said the young generation is selfish,” he said.
‘They want all these things, they want to go on holiday abroad five times and stay in luxury hotels and have the best clothes and the best cars and all that kind of stuff.
‘How about settling down and having a family? Wouldn’t that be a great thought? Call me old-fashioned.