I happened to fall across the documentary last night on ABC1 called “Drive” largely about our young men killing themselves on our roads. There were interviews with the parents (largely mothers), the ex-girlfriends or fiancés, the mates, friends and so on. There was a reciting of their history, their struggles at school, their development into teens, a snap-shot of family life (or lack of it) and the culture that they embraced with alcohol, thrill-seeking and such.

It seemed clear to me. If we are serious about our young people in this country, then we have to be serious about early intervention. No if’s, but’s.  Governments can talk all they like about about strategies or programs, but they are only band-aids or patch-ups. If they don’t get to the root cause of the problem, then they are simply hot air and vote catching.

There is no doubt that these young people would have been clearly identified in the early years of school (Reception, Year 1-4) as having problems, as experiencing learning difficulties, as being disruptive, as being hard to manage.

But what do governments do about this? Zip.  Nil.  Zero.  Nothing.

This you can therefore expect…that the problems with our youth will continue to spiral out of control…there will be many more deaths and carnage… that much is clear.  Very clear.

When are we going to get serious?  Really serious…