Whichever way you look at it the numbers are huge

Research out today has revealed parents are paying fifty percent more to bring up two children than they did five years ago.

Much of the extra money is discretionary, going on childcare and private schools.

Lower income families spend significantly less.

Whichever way you look at it the numbers are huge. In 2012, an Australian family earning $110,000 dollars a year will spend nearly eight times that amount to bring up two children.

It's something Jane Campbell, a mother of three in Brisbane knows only too well.

It's extremely expensive and I think part of that expense is the practicalities of life and that is that teenage boys eat so much for a start but it's also the social pressure of them having to have certain things in order to fit into a particular social group - X-Box, the latest skateboard, you know, the right type of shoes and that sort of thing.

According to the National Centre for Social and Economic Modelling - or NATSEM - the reasons the Campbell's are feeling the pinch are typical. Australian middle income parents are paying more, but it's not because they have to -- it's because they are choosing to.

Partly it's higher prices, so things like private school education, university education, the cost of recreation and transport. There's also been a shift towards many items that are quite expensive such as private school education. So parents are actually choosing to spend more money.

The researchers didn't look at why more and more middle income parents are choosing private over state schools, but they did find that with the increase in family income due to the strong economy, there's been a corresponding increase in spending on children.

For families on the lower income end of the spectrum the average cost of two kids is much lower, at around $450,000. And Ben Phillips says much of that cost is met by the government.

We actually found around 85 per cent of their costs were actually paid for effectively by the government either through family payments or baby bonuses or school kids bonus. You still find that at the lower income families actually face a higher proportionate cost relative to their income. Older kids certainly cost a lot more than younger kids and that does have ramifications in terms of those family payments.

So things like baby bonuses, family payments are quite heavily directed or at least equally directed towards younger children whereas we're finding the cost of older kids is so much more. So perhaps there needs to be more tweaking of the family payment system towards those older children.

The VIP tables are gone and only a few dozen tickets remained as of Tuesday for the unique event, the brainchild of three local businesses known for their support of craft brewing: Imbibe Wine & Spirits Merchant, Eureka! Gourmet Burgers & Craft Beer and Moo Creamery.