Dallas Briggs was raised in regional Western Australia and claims most “whingers out there” have no concept of the “true meaning of the word tough”.

The 69-year-old told The Leader he was fed up with the growing sense of entitlement among some people seemingly content to live off the hard work of others.

“It’s just so easy today to go up to Centrelink or the Salvation Army or anyone else and say ‘fix this’,” he said. “When I think back to my childhood in the late ’40s and ’50s, none of this was available, but we survived.”

Mr Briggs grew up in a family home with dirt floors, no electricity and only a single, cold-water tap in a kitchen that also doubled as a bathroom.

They made do with an outside toilet that “on a stinking hot day the air inside was so thick that even the flies refused to go near it”.

“It was mandatory, prior to sitting, that you light a rolled-up newspaper and wave it around under the seat to despatch any redback spiders, who obviously had no sense of smell,” he said.

Money for food was scant, although Mr Briggs said the things his mother could do with offal “would shame these so-called master-chefs”.

“(There were) no birthday parties ... nor did we attend friends’ parties,” he said. “I was 40 before I had a party. A surprise from my wonderful wife – that night has never been topped.”

Mr Briggs, who got his first job at 13 and worked constantly through until retirement, said he had no doubt the world was a better place now than when he was growing up.

* Read Dallas Briggs’ full letter in Opinion