There is nothing new under the sun, as the old saying goes. Older people are concerned about the things younger ones enthuse about because they have all been tried in the past and have failed.

And enough of this 'inclusive' nonsense that doesn't include the older people you are always complaining about. Hypocrite!

Celebrating gays and foreigners isn't necessarily progress.
- When we're arguing over transgender toilets and ethnic / gender quotas, it's more like a race to the bottom.

The young have aspirations that never come to pass;
the old have reminiscences of what never happened.

I am just so glad that I lived through the best this country could offer.

I lived through a couple of winters in a dirt floored single skinned tin shed, with 25F the average night temperature, but it got our house built. Today you would be kicked out by council, & have to rent somewhere.

I went to a small country high school, with teachers good enough to help me get the marks I needed to win a university engineering scholarship. My daughter had to spend every Saturday for a year at QUT coaching school for math C & physics because the teachers at a large near capital city were not able to even understand or do the math & physics they were supposed to teach.

I could afford to own & race a Formula 2 Brabham on pretty ordinary wages. Today only a multi millionaire could do it.

I could afford a yacht & go sail the pacific. On the same income level today, I'd have trouble affording a tinny.

No I don't want the old times back, but I'll be grateful until the day I die that I lived them, rather than denigrate them.

Yes today's Australia is a much better place for a bludger who does not speak English, but no where near as good for the worker.

The "good old days" weren't really as good as some would prefer to remember them. That's how nostalgia works.

The Australia I grew up in during in the sixties and seventies was just as divided, openly (and as proudly) racist and gays were routinely bashed and gaoled. In the school system we were taught that Aborigines were officially considered "a dying race".

The only real difference now is that the middle class has shrunk and inequality has risen dramatically. The rich have become very much richer and the number of poor have increased but we have a lot more techno-toys to play with and keep us distracted and amused.

As for "arguing over transgender toilets and ethnic/gender quotas", to me it seems some are obsessing and complaining loudly but the rest of us don't much care or think about them at all.

Growing up in the late 60's, early 70's, the days of my youthful experience. Then most Australians enjoyed the good life of Hills Hoists, Victa Lawmowers and Vegemite on their toast in the mornings. The horrors of the Vietnam War was on the nightly news, every night, and the Conservatives had been in power in Canberra for more years than most could remember. For the majority Australia was indeed the lucky country, migration was giving many a new start in life, and jobs were plentiful. Hidden away just below the surface was a darker Australia of injustice, bigotry and racism. The unjust war in Vietnam become a focus for protest by those on the progressive side of politics, particularly from the young who were designated to be the cannon fodder for the dirty war. The Civil Rights movement in America was demonstrating that a minority could fight for social change and win. In Australia groups such as women, Indiginous, gays etc were startling to demand social justice for themselves, no longer content to be voiceless and accepting of their lot in society. In the words of the Bob Dylan classic 'Times They Are A-Changin'.