Wrong.

The lovely lady on the phone informed me that there are only two ways that they will help me: either I must earn 18 thousand dollars (aka work full time) or I must show that its unreasonable to live at home, which by their definition is only the case if you’re getting raped or beaten up or something along those lines. Nevermind that I got practically kicked out, nevermind that my parents live 3 hours from where I work and study, nevermind that parents are not legally obliged to support their children after 21. No, Centrelink looks past all that and sees me as receiving financial help from them – help which they couldn’t provide even if they wanted to because they’re so deep in debt.

Apparently I’m not the only one in this ridiculous situation, and it has driven students to cheating the system or living in poverty or even resorting to prostitution to pay the bills. What the hell is wrong with our government? Why do lazy dole bludgers, who never worked in their life and never intend to get support from the government while the youth that chooses full time tertiary education gets ignored?

The worst thing is that it is us, the students, who will go on to well paid jobs which will attract the high taxes that will go to drive the system that screwed us over when we needed it most. I don’t think I’ll have any moral dilemma about doing everything I can to evade taxes after this.