Do you remember that old joke about whingeing Poms? It went kind of like this: how do you know when a planeload of English people has landed at Sydney Airport? The engines of the plane have stopped but it is still whining!

Was that unfair? I think so because when it comes to whingeing, we do pretty well ourselves actually. In fact, if they ever make it an Olympic sport, I reckon we’d have a pretty good shot at the gold medal.

Complaining seems very fashionable right now. People complain about everything. Is it some kind of Covid hangover?

Of course, the difference is that we know about it now thanks to social media where people are negative and up in arms about all sorts of things.

The complaints and bickering about Brisbane 2032 have been staggering. Now I, foolishly perhaps, think it is a wonderful thing that we got the games but there seems to be a lot of naysayers and I have heard some people saying that we should cancel them and spend the money on things we need.

They are missing a vital point here. It makes me think about the bad old days on the Gold Coast. When I was still living there in the early 1980s people were complaining about the council building an arts centre because they reckoned the money should have been put towards a better sewerage system.

You can have both though.

I remember all the folks who railed against the redevelopment of Suncorp Stadium. Thank God they didn’t get their way because now we have one of the best sports venues in the country. The Cauldron!

In Queensland we can have good hospitals, schools and other amenities – plus stadiums and theatres and the Olympics. So, stop complaining everyone.

When people are not complaining about the Olympics they are complaining about traffic or the airport. But we live in a city that is becoming something of an Asia-Pacific hub and we do get planes coming in and out, okay?

I know some people complain about public transport too but again, we’re doing okay. I travel by train sometimes and I find it efficient and the trains are largely on time and we have plenty more public transport coming online soon. So, it’s all good.

Inner city folk in particular are being encouraged to complain about all sorts of things nowadays often encouraged by supposedly progressive politicians and they seem unable to restrain themselves from complaining about all this one social media and it is becoming BORING.

But you know what? If you live in Brisbane the glass is half full, not half empty. We have a terrific city with a terrific airport, good public transport, a high standard of living and a terrific Olympic future so let’s embrace it and stop the whingeing.

We really don’t have that much to complain about although I’ve just released something. I’m complaining about people complaining. Whoops.