The First Four Months Of 2017 Have Been An Absolute Clusterfuck For Young People

It's been... bad.

1. When the education minister announced university fees were going up by 7.5% over four years, it was left to ABC host Leigh Sales to ask a pretty obvious question.

ABC 7:30

2. In the government's search for cuts and savings, they settled on hiking students' course fees. A science student, for example, will pay $1,000 extra; nursing and teaching students $1,250 extra; and a medical student $3,900 extra.

Education department

People who enjoyed free university education in the 1970s and 1980s are backing policies that leave today’s student with tens of thousands of dollars of loan debt.

3. Oh about that debt. Young people will now need to start paying their loans SOONER.

dream ghoul @TheDreamGhoul

MUGGER: GIVE ME YOUR PURSE OR I'LL SHOOT YOU ME: *realize I won't have to pay student loans back if I'm dead* MUGGER: ??? ME: I'm thinking.

01:39 AM - 24 Feb 2015

Graduates straight out of university would start paying back loans as soon as their wage hit about $42,000... a mere 20% above the country's minimum wage.

4. That delicious shit sandwich comes two months after it was announced Sunday penalty rates would be cut for jobs regularly filled by young people.

CityTV / Via media.giphy.com

Retail and hospitality workers faced a 25% cut to their Sunday penalty rates. That means a young person on $19 per hour would see their take home pay cut by $77 a week.

5. Student debt... up. Low paid wages... down. Oh housing, don't forget housing, it's ALL the way up.

imgur.com

Houses in Sydney and Melbourne increased absurdly in value over the last 12 months. It's fuelled by investors flooding the market to snap up more properties, using negative gearing and capital gains discounts to minimise the tax they pay to the government.

Which is fine, just rent right? Bahahaha Sydney rents are up up up and in Melbourne it's the same.

6. There's also awful news for those that DO have jobs: Australia's wages are growing so slowly they're breaking records.

giphy.com

7. There was also news that the jobs that young people are getting are often part-time, which is just terrific for financial security.

justin @justinnlailai

interviewer: why do you want this job? me: I've always been passionate about being able to afford food

04:08 AM - 20 Feb 2017

It's also tough outside of major metro cities. The unemployment rate for youth in the NSW Hunter Valley is 23%; in parts of Tasmania it's 20%; and in Outback Queensland it's as high as 28%.

8. The solution for this jobs issue? Lol a new coal mine.

Dave Hunt / AAPIMAGE

No, seriously.

The federal and Queensland governments have been pushing very hard to get Australia's biggest coal mine built, citing questionable claims it'll create several thousand jobs.

Which brings us to how the dirty coal mine will exacerbate climate change...

9. If you need to point to any single issue that represents how young people are being robbed in 2017 by the older generations, it's climate change.

Planetary.org / Via giphy.com

The CSIRO laid out a plan for the government which would get Australia's emissions to zero by mid century.

It's been flatly rejected of course, therefore kicking the cost of damaging climate change down the road to somebody else. That is, young people. Great. Thanks 2017.