Multimillionaire entrepreneur Jim Penman is backing research into a drug he describes as an “anti-cocaine” treatment, arguing it could help address Australia’s falling birth rate.
The founder of Jim’s Mowing, who has fathered 10 children across multiple marriages, has long argued that Australia’s declining fertility is linked to the growing supply of dopamine-driven stimulation outside traditional family life.
Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released in August showed the nation’s total fertility rate fell to a record low of 1.48 births per woman in 2024.
The total fertility rate refers to the average number of children an Australian woman is expected to have between the ages of 15 and 49.
The rate briefly climbed to 1.69 in 2021 after the Covid lockdowns, but declined in each subsequent year, reaching 1.49 in 2023.
Australia’s fertility rate has remained below the replacement level of 2.1 children per woman since the mid-1970s.
During his university years, Penman became convinced that the long-term drop in births was connected to the expanding availability of gambling, alcohol, drugs and junk food.
He believes the immediate “dopamine rush” produced by those activities can make the demanding but ultimately rewarding work of marriage, parenting and family relationships feel less compelling.
Jim Penman (centre), the founder of Jim’s Mowing, has also raised 10 children across multiple marriages. He believes Australians are being affected by excessive dopamine stimulation.
Penman (pictured) is funding research into a drug he likens to an “anti-cocaine” treatment, which he believes could counter the dopamine overload behind declining birth rates.
He is funding research into a treatment designed to reduce the brain’s response to that stimulation.
“It [vices] floods the brain with dopamine, which makes the brain less sensitive to dopamine … similar to what happens when you take cocaine or other drugs,” he said, News.com.au reported.
Ahead of his campaign for the Victorian state seat of Northcote, Penman said his philanthropic research organisation, Epigenes, was working on a drug “like an anti-cocaine” treatment.
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“On an individual level we need to get rid of these dopamine surges causing the problems – sex, porn, social media, gambling.”
Penman acknowledges those sources of stimulation cannot simply be removed from society, but believes their effects could be managed at an individual level.
“A more realistic solution is to develop treatments, so things like family and children become more attractive.”
“If you could develop such a treatment, it would have dramatic consequences for anxiety, depression, alcoholism.”
Epigenes is exploring the drug’s potential in partnership with La Trobe University.
However, Dr Liz Allen, a demographer at the Australian National University, rejected Penman’s theory that Australia’s fertility decline is the result of excessive dopamine.
“Let’s be clear here, Australians are not foregoing children because they are hedonistic and selfish,” she told 7News.
Penman (above) believes the falling birth rate is because Australians are finding dopamine outside the family unit – including in gambling, junk food, pornography and social media
‘Declining total fertility rates cannot be pinned down to one thing.’
Instead, she pointed to larger socioeconomic issues.
She argued the growing cost of living, housing affordability and global instability was contributing to Australians having fewer children.
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