But, ultimately, it is our attitudes and values that we need to reflect on and to shift. We can have the most family-friendly practices enshrined in law, but if social attitudes do not support parenthood and families, and if couples do not see having babies and bringing up families as one of their personal priorities, our birth rates will continue to languish.

Mr Tan Soo Khoon mentioned how Italy has a generous maternity leave scheme. Well, we have studied Italy. I am told that although the legislation allows working women five months of maternity leave, many do not take it. Our study team went there and they were told by unions and academics that some companies require their employees to sign undated resignation letters when they join. And then when the female employee becomes pregnant and applies for maternity leave, date applied, contract terminated. The women sign the letters because they need the work. But then they 'vote with their wombs' and forgo having more than one child.

So that is why the challenge cannot be solved just by Government measures. We need the support of employers, unions, and society as a whole to help our fellow Singaporeans have children and to raise babies. The decisions to marry, have children, and raise a family are personal ones. We are guided by our values and attitudes towards life. Maternity leave, flexi-work arrangements, financial incentives and all the other measures, 50 or more, influence these decisions, but they are not the decisive factors.

I agree with the many MPs who have said that this is an issue of the heart, of emotions, not one that can be solved by financial incentives alone. They spoke eloquently and with feeling about the joys of parenthood. As a father, I share their sentiments, because ultimately it is for the love of children that we have children.

So our values and priorities in life will need to shift. Couples will need to realise that while it is important to pursue a career, it cannot be the only thing in life. It is good to go on holidays, three, four or five times a year, as some young people wrote in the Straits Times, but that is not the only thing in life. We become whole through our families, and society must not only recognise this but embrace it.

Women are caught at the heart of the many difficult trade-offs involved in having children and raising families. The women MPs have all reminded us that what we need are mindset changes - in the home, the workplace, and society at large. The challenge of parenthood is one where both husbands and wives must shoulder together.

So, as Mr Tan Soo Khoon said - this year, I agree with most of Mr Tan Soo Khoon's speech - the question of whether to raise a family is one that every Singaporean will have to seriously ask himself or herself. And the answers that each one of us gives, taken together, will decide what kind of Singapore this is going to be. Is it going to be a young vibrant, forward-looking society, or an aging self-centred declining society? It is not just about building a critical mass of people to ensure the security and economic vitality of Singapore, or even a question of who is going to look after us when we grow old. It is about the values which will shape the society of the future, and what we ourselves will leave behind when we pass on. Because having children is believing in the future. It is about setting aside our own comforts and conveniences for their sake. It is the same values that make us good parents - sacrifice, selflessness, confidence, and resilience - that will also make us a strong society. And that, more than anything else, is why we must help Singaporeans to raise families for the future.