We’re not lazy. Millennials lash Baby Boomers

YOUNG Australians, known as ‘Millennials’ have lashed out at accusations they’re a generation of lazy tech addicts, claiming Baby Boomers have left them a legacy of debt and locked them out of the property market.

We’re not lazy!... Jarred Keane, 31, Brooke Gibbs, 18, Deanna Coco, 26, Asher Robinson, 32, and Leya Reid. Picture: Bob Barker.

YOUNG Australians, known as “Millennials”have lashed out at accusations they’re a generation of lazy tech addicts, claiming Baby Boomers have left them a legacy of debt and locked them out of the property market.

Generational tensions have reached their highest point since the late 1960s, according to top demographers.

But while previous generations bickered over everything from the Vietnam War to the Beatles, the property market is officially the generational battleground of 2017.

The Saturday Telegraph spoke to a selection of Millennials — those born between 1982 and 1999 — this week and discovered a common complaint: they are sick and tired of being told they are “the lucky generation” when owning a home has become completely out of reach.

Macleay College student Brooke Gibbs is only 18 but is already worried about how she’ll be able to buy a house.

Millennials say Baby Boomers were largely unsympathetic to their plight. Picture: Bob Barker.

Working four days a week and studying for the rest, Ms Gibbs said she was fed up with her generation being depicted as a bunch of layabouts.

She said she spent six months hunting for her retail job, handing out more than 50 resumes and spent a week door knocking local businesses trying to find work.

She said Baby Boomers were largely unsympathetic to the Millennials’ plight.

“I feel like they don’t really understand,” Ms Gibbs said.

“I’m always being told when I was your age I was out of home or had travelled to all these places ... all I do is work and study because we need to make bigger sacrifices.”

University of Technology student Leya Reid said she thought the misconception that Millennials were “lazy and reckless” should change.

“Without discrediting the progress in terms of women’s liberation and civil rights, the Baby Boomer generation has locked us out of the housing market and left us with a huge financial burden,” she said.

Social commentator Mark McCrindle said generational tensions had worsened in the past 12 months.

He said while Millennials were now enjoying cheaper electronics, lower taxes and better interest rates than 30 years ago, house prices had grown at more than double the speed of wages.

“Housing seems to be the sore point and the one place Millennials can say they’re facing it tougher,” he said.

Demographer Bernard Salt agreed generational tension had been crystallised by housing affordability.

“In Sydney today it is housing that’s the barbecue stopper and the biggest generational divide,” he said.