Soft parenting, soft schooling, a soft legal system, soft on immigration, soft on antisemitism, and a very soft government. Australia is currently navigating a systemic decline in standards and expectations that threatens the very fabric of our society. This pervasive ‘softness’ has moved from the home into the classroom, and now into the highest halls of power, leaving us a nation without boundaries or the resolve to enforce them.
In the animal world, such an approach would be disastrous. Baby cubs require love and nurturing, but they also require boundaries for safety and discipline from adults when they step out of line. Through this firm guidance, they learn family values, understand their role in the community, and receive the instruction on hunting and survival skills necessary for their future. When the time comes, they are firmly encouraged to leave their pride and put those skills into practice.
The home front: the failure of discipline
The current crisis begins at home. Soft or ‘gentle’ parenting has produced a large number of young adults who have no boundaries and no respect for their peers. These individuals have never been told ‘no’ and, as a result, cannot easily integrate into a society that requires compromise and discipline. Modern permissive parenting is the antithesis of the natural world. With no requirements for regulated behaviour, rudeness and antisocial behaviour are tolerated and go unchecked. Physical punishment or verbal reprimands are rare, and threats of punishment are never carried out. We are raising a generation in a vacuum of consequence, and the results are now visible in our national performance.
Education: the death of merit
This lack of boundaries is aided and abetted by a ‘soft’ schooling system. We have created environments that produce young adults who have no respect for their teachers, which facilitates unruly classroom behaviour. By failing to accept authority within the educational system, students are learning less and less. Those who continue to university are often ill-prepared and are allowed to slip through to graduation with a degree, whether it was truly earned or not.
The proof is undeniable. In the year 2000, PISA rankings placed Australia in the top ten globally for reading, maths, and science. By 2022, our scores had plummeted: reading was down 30 points, maths was down 37 points, and science was down 20 points. While our children’s actual skills are declining, their self-assessed ‘achievements’ are being artificially inflated. A 2024 report revealed that at the University of Sydney, the number of ‘distinction’ grades awarded increased by 234 per cent over the previous decade. We are awarding more honours for less work, a ‘soft’ approach that devalues the very concept of merit. Current data shows that one in five Australian adults now has low literacy and numeracy skills. The move away from ‘explicit instruction’ and phonics has undoubtedly led to this decline in the foundational basics.
The revolving door of justice
When a young person has never been told ‘no’ at home or in school, and their first real encounter with authority is the legal system, it also fails them. The guiding principle of ‘detention as a last resort’ has evolved into a dangerous ‘revolving door’ of bail. We are witnessing a generation of repeat offenders who treat the courts with indifference. In 2024, data from Queensland revealed that 75 per cent of serious youth offenders reoffended within just two weeks of being released. Nationally, more than half of all young people reoffend within a few months. The issue of multiple bail releases is where this leniency becomes a threat to public safety. Teenagers charged with violent home invasions are frequently released, only to commit the same crimes days later. When a 15-year-old is released on bail for the sixth time, we are teaching them that there are no final consequences.
Cultural boundaries and immigration
This refusal to enforce boundaries extends to our national borders and our cultural identity. For a society to function, it must have a shared set of values. However, Australia’s approach to immigration has become soft, prioritising volume over integration. A soft approach fails to demand that new arrivals respect the culture they are joining. We have moved away from an expectation of assimilation toward fragmented multiculturalism, where the boundaries are non-existent. Living in Australia is a privilege that must come with the requirement to adopt Australian culture, respect the rule of law, and accept our democratic values. If an individual refuses to integrate, the consequence must be clear: integration or deportation. A society that cannot say ‘no’ to those who undermine it is a society in retreat.
The erosion of social cohesion
One of the most alarming symptoms of this softness is the rise of overt hostility toward the Jewish community. The rapid rise of antisemitism is a direct consequence of a society that has abandoned the ‘foundational basics’ of mutual respect and firm authority. When we see public displays of hate, the government’s response is characteristically weak. By failing to draw a hard line against incitement, the state effectively aids the breakdown of social cohesion. In the animal world, a pack survives because there are clear rules about how members treat one another. In modern Australia, those rules have been replaced by a ‘soft’ tolerance for the intolerable.
A lack of accountability
In Indigenous affairs, ‘softness’ is manifest in a total lack of financial and social accountability. For decades, billions in taxpayer funds have been dispersed annually with almost no requirement for measurable outcomes. This permissive policy has inadvertently birthed a two-tier system: a small, well-connected group who have become extraordinarily wealthy by navigating the bureaucratic maze, while the vast majority of the Indigenous population in remote and regional communities remain stagnant, trapped in a cycle of disadvantage with no meaningful advancement in their daily lives. A ‘firm’ and fair society would demand that every dollar spent is accounted for and that every program produces real-world results. Instead, we have settled for a status quo that prioritises the optics of high-level spending over the grit of grassroots progress.
A government without principle
The ultimate expression of this decline is a very soft government together with a very soft opposition – a political class terrified of the polls and more concerned with optics than outcomes. We are led by leaders happy to lie and discard previous undertakings for short-term gain. This lack of integrity is the logical conclusion of a culture that no longer demands accountability.
The consequences are hitting our economy. Australia is currently in a ‘GDP per capita’ recession – a technical recession where the individual’s standard of living is actively shrinking. Instead of firm economic discipline, the government masks structural failures with record-high immigration and populist spending. Much like students who ‘slip through’ to graduation without earning their degree, our government is attempting to slip through its term without making the hard, principled decisions necessary for national survival.
The cost of softness
The proof is right before us. We have ignored the lessons of the natural world, where boundaries and explicit instruction are essential for survival. If we continue down this path of ‘no boundaries’, the foundational basics of our civilisation will continue to erode. Reversing this slide into mediocrity requires more than just policy tweaks; it requires a fundamental, unapologetic return to firmness. We must rediscover the courage to say ‘no’, the discipline to enforce consequences, and the principle to stand by our word. Only then can we hope to restore the standards that once made Australia a world leader.
