My partner is doing a PhD through Melbourne Uni, though at this stage by distance. According to her supervisor, Melbourne Uni does not lack funds for building student accomodations; it is simply that they can't aquire property nearby. It occured to me that just north of the campus there is an area of prime real estate roughly the same size as the campus itself. I refer to the 43 hectare Melbourne General Cemetery.Melbourne University says living costs for students are so high, hundreds are now considered homeless.
Its survey estimates 400 students are forced to find temporary accommodation at friends or relatives homes because they can not afford rising rent costs.
It says some students were even "hot-bedding" or using the same bed to sleep in shifts.
The President of the National Union of Students, Angus McFarland, says the Federal Government needs to increase living support for tertiary students.
"Your degree costs thousands and thousands of dollars," he said.
"If you have to work the whole time just to struggle to live and can't, you know, complete your assignments and you end up falling behind or failing, then you're not getting your money's worth.
Mr McFarland, says that the current Youth Allowance scheme is out of reach for those who need it most.
He says to qualify, students' parents must earn less than a combined $39,000 or students must prove their independence by earning $18,525 or more within 18 months of leaving school.
"It is nearly impossible to access any government support," Mr McFarland said.
"If you can earn that amount of money independently then why would you need income support?"
Mr McFarland says students are burdened by rising housing costs, with the majority of students paying between $160.00 and $200.00 each week.
The National Union of Students says the government should reduce the age at which someone is considered independent, increase the parental income threshold and increase the amount offered to students
The Federal Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner has refused to says any increase in government spending could add to the living costs that students are facing.
"The trade-offs that we have to always look at are, if you are increasing spending, whether that is just indirectly going to push up prices and create a dog chasing its tail phenomenon."
No, it would never happen, but is it so ludicrous to suggest it? I know that the issue of the space that dead people take up has been aired before, so I'd like to hear thoughts on exhuming and relocating thousands of bodies in order to make life easier for a bunch of tertiary students. This doesn't have to apply specifically to Melbourne, but that's the example I'm using.
Problems? Manifold. First, people aren't going to like it. Even if they don't have anyone interred there, the idea of digging up bodies of People Like Us that died in respectable circumstances. Further, by relocating these graves outside of the city, people might have to travel up to fifty kilometres further than they had previously. It is also worth noting that three Australian prime ministers have graves there(well, two, they never found the body of the third), as well as a host of prominent figures from Australian history. It is not entirely removed from the applying the same concept to Arlington, and I can only image the incandescent outrage that would cause. The final problem that I see with the idea is that if we reclaim cemeteries for urban development, why stop there? Next on the list will be parks, and without a little bit of green here and there, cities would be unbearably shit.
Please discuss all and any points I've raised and the ones I haven't.
