Spokesman for good-natured wankers Australia-wide

[dalekboy]

Just had a phone call. I may be doing another interview on being a sperm donor for The Australian. I feel quite cheery and chuffed about this.

The only sad side is that the journalist is from Sydney. Why is that a sad side? I've been asked because they couldn't find anyone in Sydney willing or able to do it.

Which isn't surprising - last I heard there were five active sperm donors in the whole of NSW.

Comments

[dalekboy.livejournal.com]

Actually, in most cases it's the people themselves paying for the IVF. There may be people who have the government paying for it, but I have yet to hear of it.

[kaths.livejournal.com]

There's a reasonable sized Medicare rebate if you're on it for medical reasons.

[vegetus.livejournal.com]

http://www.ivf.net/ivf/australia_to_cut_ivf_funding-o1396-en.html

Err no it's medicare subsidised- at several thousand a pop. In probably one of the few sensible things the previous government did, they wanted to put a cap on it for older women as the older you get the less chance you have of it being successful. Of course there was heaps of stuff in the media at the time about how dare the government not spend health funding on helping older women have babies. I also had an aunt who went through IVF and know that the government paid for a good portion of it.

Compare this to people who adopt from overseas who get no government support until the kid is in country and even then they only get the standard family allowance, no baby bonus or assistance with migration etc. (sorry I couldn't find a link but I read this in a book about international adoption for Australian parents)

This happens when you are a demographer, you remember crazy stuff like this because it affects your work. You also develop a love/hate relationship with Peter Costello!