Australians dying of 'affluence'

Australians dying of 'affluence', forum told : "Education levels in developing nations were also rising quickly, Mr Brumby said, while 'compared with the rest of the world we are not performing well at all'.

'If you look at participation in tertiary education in the 25s to 64s, we do all right, but if you take the 25 to 35-year-old group, China and India, and all of those BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India, China) economies are very rapidly catching us."

People who come here cannot work it out. I spoke to a German today who realised many of our young people have no idea they have no foundation in education and no real capacity to be independent thinkers. We really have succumbed to the airhead approach and virtual living because we have become so complacent, materialistic and know it all. The facts are starting to speak for themselves and we have to stop those few pulling the rest of us out of line. I think you'll find it's a few who have twisted the picture and demanded a lowering of all sorts of standards we used to be brilliant at.