ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact
A second-generation property developer in Betoota Heights has laughed off suggestion some of his staff are better off on JobKeeper, telling The Advocate today that if they want to have nice things like him – they should just start their own company like his father did.
Lawrence Cockburn of Cockburn & Sons Construction said wealthy isn’t as much of a class thing as it is an effort thing – that a person’s wealth is directly correlated to the amount of ‘get up and go’ they have.
“Some of my workers have taught me some very valuable lessons,” he said.
“That you can work hard your whole life and still leave this planet with fuck all. You need to work smarter, like me,”
“My grandfather grew up in a house with dirt floors, my dad grew up in a house with lino floors and the house I grew up in a beach house. So don’t come at me, lefties. We’re all self-made men.”
When asked why he couldn’t afford to pay his workers more, Lawrence laughed again and said he could easily afford to pay his workers more.
“Why should I?” he said.
“Then what motivation would they have to work harder? I’m not the Smith Family.”
More to come.
