The Wire

With the system of youth allowance in what students feel is a woeful state, protests were held across the country today to improve the fairness of payments. Australian 18 year olds are considered adults, old enough to vote, drink or join the army, but not old enough to claim independent youth allowance – unless they are married. This is why student activists Fletcher O’Leary and Lavinia Emmett Grey today decided that they would tie the knot, and make young Fletcher immediately eligible for a much higher rate of pay.