Like many parents in the 80s and 90s, I had a T-Shirt that read: ‘I’M YOUR DAD, NOT YOUR ATM!’

Probably like those other parents, I had a tough upbringing, a strong work ethic, and perhaps I was a little too severe in sending the wrong signals to our four sons. I snuck ‘Join the Army’ and ‘Join the Navy’ brochures into their lunch boxes once they turned 10, hoping they’d get the hint. On holidays, I would put them in queues for planes to other destinations.

Occasionally they would call me out in front of their mother, asking, ‘Are you trying to get rid of us?’ To which I would smilingly nod my head in agreement. But their mother would then interject saying, ‘You can stay at home until you’re 42, my precious boys.’ The thought terrified me, so I would stand behind her, drawing my hand across my neck trying to get my message through to them.

We limited their computer time and focused on indoor mountain climbing, canoeing, bikes, club sports, etc., to keep them busy and healthy.

After we returned from a US family holiday, and with the oldest boy being around 15 by this time, they impudently asked us over dinner, ‘Are we rich?’ ‘Your mother and I are comfortable,’ I responded, ‘but you guys are povo, poor, and penniless!’ Clearly, even at that age, they assumed that they were entitled.

Luckily, four out of four sons turned out brilliantly. All left home by the age of 21, then married women much smarter than them, and now have their own kids. If any of them ring looking for me, you haven’t seen me!

The 80s and 90s families were starting to bask in the wealth of both parents working, teenage kids with part-time jobs, and a tax system that rewarded effort. The family beach shack and boat became standard trappings for many.

In this current period of time, there has been a watershed change in the spirit of Australia which was brought home to me by the surprise visit of an old friend two years ago to our MTG small business coffee group, John D.

John D had disappeared interstate for cancer treatment, and after some dismal reports and no communications, we had all assumed that he had carked it.

A few months later, he surprisingly presented himself at the MTG. He was looking splendid and assured us that he was cancer free. He then explained to us that when his oncologist had predicted an expiry date within a few days, he had called his three adult children around, all of them well-educated and settled in their own families. He agreed to split his moderate wealth between the three of them and proceeded to sign all of his worldly possessions over.

Over the next few months, he made an amazing and remarkable recovery, finally discharging himself out of hospital. All of us were intently listening to his story, then he explained that one by one, he visited his ‘financially comfortable’ children for some financial help. One by one they refused to help, so he then sought help from old friends.

Our coffee group were astounded, only to hear from the group’s resident MD that he was now seeing this appalling behaviour ‘all the time’, where children and their spouses abandon their family values while vapourising the money in quick time.

That was two years ago and now I am observing the disappearance of the family beach shack, the boat, and other trappings belonging to Mum and Dad to fund kids and grandkids who seem very reluctant to get a job, or leave home, or are having marriage breakdowns, or going through self-inflicted drug or alcohol problems.

Did Covid send us down the rabbit hole of laziness and entitlement? For sure, and as an outspoken critic of lockdowns and jobkeeper, I could see this coming. You only have to look at university students of medium to well-off families and see them studying endlessly for PhDs in basket weaving or dry cleaning or something similarly useless, in this lazy life mostly funded by the Bank of Mum and Dad.

Is the tax system now geared against effort? Absolutely! This is a huge understatement when you look at the ALP and Greens socialist view of personal tax, superannuation, and the ever-increasing avalanches of government rules and regulations each with fee-based terms and conditions. The justification is to ‘rob the rich’. At the core of medium to well-off families is a Mum and Dad who have worked their asses off.

Is our ALP government spending geared to promote laziness? Again absolutely! This is directly coupled with the huge number of lazy people willing to take ‘free stuff’ in return for voting the ALP and Greens into power. The ALP programs that have mass appeal and good intentions, such as the NDIS, have attracted huge numbers of people that are rorting the system and gleefully devastating the national budget.

The ‘free stuff’, such as a $275 reduction in cost of living, is usually one of the many huge enticing lies and if you have been around long enough to have seen the ALP win previous elections. You will know the stream of lies before an election is from their standard playbook. It certainly hooks in the gullibles.

Our youth don’t need mental health centres! They need a job or a three-year National Service stint tied to skills training. They also need to get their heads away from the electronic rectangle affixed to their hands

The increase in people dependent on welfare programs is exactly proportional to the increasing number of job vacancies. However, the policy dunces in Fort Fumble (aka Canberra) adding two-plus-two have arrived at seventeen and decided to introduce mass migration to fill the job vacancies. This, together with climate change policy, is a merry-go-round of absolute financial stupidity.

In the meantime, my friends who were Mums and Dads in the 80s and 90s continue to bail out disintegrating families, while the government continues to rob their superannuation savings, increasing their personal tax, and adding to the tax component on almost every item they buy.

Oh for a leader with spine and vision!

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