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More Australian women are having children later in life, with the number giving birth over 35 almost doubling in the space of two decades.

An Australian Institute of Health and Welfare report notes more than 76,000 babies were born in 2019 to the age group, compared to 69,000 in 2009 and 42,000 in 1999.

"The average age of all women giving birth in Australia has been rising, including for first-time mothers," AIHW spokeswoman Bernice Cropper said.

"The average maternal age has increased from 27.1 years in 1979 to 30.8 years in 2019 for all mothers."

In 2019, more than 60 per cent of women were 30 or over when they gave birth, compared with 54 per cent in 2010.

One quarter of all women giving birth in 2019 were 35 or over. Two in seven of those gave birth for the first time.

The report found mothers over 35 were more likely to live in cities than their younger counterparts, with more than a quarter residing in the highest socioeconomic areas.

Victoria and the ACT had the highest proportion of women 35-plus giving birth (28 per cent), with the Northern Territory (19) and Tasmania (20) the lowest.

"There can be advantages to giving birth later in the life and the majority of older mothers will have uncomplicated pregnancies and healthy babies," Ms Cropper said.

"However, women who give birth later in life are more at risk of complications, such as gestational diabetes (18 per cent of mothers aged 40 and over compared with 10 per cent aged 20-34), during pregnancy and birth.

"Other complications include increased risk of gestational hypertension, pre-term birth and low birthweight babies. This is particularly seen for women giving birth for the first-time."

Mothers aged 40 and over are slightly more likely to have a baby born pre-term or requiring admission to a special care nursery.

The rate of women aged 40-44 giving birth has almost doubled from 8.4 per 1000 women in 1999 to 15.5 per 1000 in 2019.

The rate almost quadrupled among women 45-49 over the same period, from 0.3 per 1000 to 1.1 per 1000.

© AAP 2021

Stadiums and shops could be the next frontier of Australia's coronavirus vaccine rollout, with a plan to administer drive-through jabs being weighed up.

Despite demand still outstripping supply, the nation's rollout commander John Frewen is confident enough doses will arrive in coming months to vastly expand the program.

A new campaign document has revealed plans for mass vaccination sites, which could also include supermarkets and conference centres.

Drive-through vaccination hubs in stadium car parks could be established in mid-August with the first trials next month, before being widely used in October.

Lieutenant-General Frewen said governments would have to decide details like traffic management and the best way for people to wait the required 15 minutes after their jab.

Jabs at work are slated to start in late September before operating in most states and territories by the end of November.

Commonwealth Bank and Westpac will trial AstraZeneca vaccinations for staff and their families in Sydney's hot spots from as soon as next week.

A retail pilot, which would include shopping centres and supermarkets, could be up and running in October.

Wesfarmers - which owns Bunnings, Kmart and Officeworks - offered its sites for mass vaccination hubs last month during a meeting with senior government figures.

Schools could also be used from December under state and territory government-run programs if experts approve Pfizer vaccine for 12- to 15-year-olds.

Lieutenant-General Frewen signalled advertising campaigns would shift focus to a "national rallying" phase in coming weeks as more supplies arrive.

"There has to be a collective national sort of sense of why vaccination is important so we'll be moving to that," he told reporters in Canberra.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese triggered national debate after calling for $300 cash payments for all fully vaccinated people.

While Scott Morrison attacked the plan, Lieutenant-General Frewen did not rule out incentives once larger vaccination coverage is achieved.

"There's cash, there's the ideas of lotteries, all of these things are being discussed," he said.

But the prime minister said he had received no advice recommending cash payments were needed.

"This policy is friendless among those who are experts in this area," he said.

Mr Morrison argued the $6 billion plan would include $2.4 billion for people who have already had a vaccine.

Australia's leaders are gunning for a 70 per cent target to significantly reduce the prospect of major lockdowns and 80 per cent to all but end city-wide shutdowns.

There was a record 213,000 doses administered in the past 24 hours as the percentage of the over-16 population fully vaccinated exceeded 20 per cent.

NSW recorded another 233 new local cases on Wednesday, while a man in his 20s died from the disease at his southwest Sydney home.

A woman in her 80s died in hospital with the two latest fatalities taking the national toll to 927.

Queensland recorded 16 new locally acquired coronavirus infections.

There was one new case in Victoria, reported after the daily update, dashing hopes of the first day without local transmission since July 12.

© AAP 2021

More than a million Australian households have completed their census forms, six days ahead of the official national headcount.

The census is scheduled for Tuesday, but the federal government says if you know where you'll be on the night, there's no need to wait.

"Early completion will help ensure a successful census," Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar said on Wednesday.

The first households started getting letters about how to fill out their online census forms last week, with 1,023,561 already lodged.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics expects about 75 per cent of people will complete the August 10 census online.

The predominantly online population count comes five years after the ABS's first attempt to conduct an online census in 2016.

That count was largely declared a failure after the census website was hit by cyber-attacks that took the system offline for about 40 hours.

Meanwhile, Minister for Veterans' Affairs and Defence Personnel Andrew Gee has encouraged serving and former Defence Force members to disclose their service on their census forms.

"Presently we do not have comprehensive demographic information about our veteran community, including simply knowing the number of veterans living in Australia," he said.

The information will help the government get services to veterans and their families in the places where they're needed most.

© AAP 2021