Foss Craig: Student Loan Scheme Bill — First Reading 
Foss Craig: Student Loan Scheme Bill — First Reading 
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CRAIG FOSS (National—Tukituki) 
: 
 I acknowledge particularly the first half of Grant Robertson’s speech and the positive nature with which most parties seem to be approaching the Student Loan Scheme Bill. As a member of the Finance and Expenditure Committee I am sure that that member’s colleagues will raise the issues he picked up on. I again acknowledge the positive nature and essentially the good public policy changes that are going on in this bill—at least in the administration and the implementation of student loans. 
First of all I congratulate the Minister of Revenue the officials and all those who were consulted leading up to this bill. In fact as part of other briefings and discussions around tax and revenue we learnt that some of the consultation on this bill was done using the new medium of Facebook I believe. There was very good feedback and engagement from students and those who will be affected by this bill who are in tertiary education right now. By and large and on the whole the essence of their message was that we should just get on with it and do it. They do their banking and they communicate online. If they want to know further information they want to be able to click on a link or give someone a phone call. Their lives are very busy and they want to see what they owe and when they owe it and the terms and conditions around it. They see it as just another expense on their outgoings. I do not mean that in a facetious way; they just did not seem to see a different kind of platform. 
I acknowledge the direction that this legislation has taken. It is a bit of a biggie because as the Minister noted student loans are one of those things that particularly stress-tested the hardware and software in the Inland Revenue Department simply because of the nature of managing a loan in a department whose origins were simply revenue gathering not loans and the complication of zero percent loans plus the other changes that have gone through over the years. 
The key words of this proposal are that the bill makes it easier not only to operate the student loan system but also for the final user of the student loan system which I spoke a little bit about earlier. At the end of the day it is an overused term but I am quite sure it is win-win all over the place. It should be a win for the taxpayer in terms of the cost of the administration of this policy but also for those who have student loans in complying with the obligations they signed up for when they originally took on their student loans. 
There are of course questions around some of the issues that the previous member raised about whether taxpayers should expect some kind of return on their investment in the tertiary education of someone who has a student loan and—in these proposals—measuring that by some kind of returns or success in those studies. That is a fair discussion to have I think. I guess the discussion will be somewhat robust at the select committee around those issues. But I am very very comfortable as a taxpayer—and I am sure many others are—that despite the stresses and strains on our Budget at the moment it is a fair bet. It is fair on all taxpayers—who invest money in tertiary education particularly via student loans—that those who are enjoying that investment from the taxpayer are doing their utmost are achieving some of their personal key performance indicators and are achieving the ability to maintain their student loan. It is about streamlining; it is about making it easier for borrowers to keep track of their loans. 
Labour’s concern about annual assessment versus the pay period is fair enough. That will be an interesting discussion to have. There will be a million and one different examples but it is a fair discussion to have. I acknowledge though that there are other points in the bill where some penalties have changed: they have been clarified and simplified. So there is a little bit of balance to it and I am sure it will form part of our discussion and part of the submissions at the select committee. At this stage I am comfortable with that but I am more than open to engaging in that discussion—as obviously we will at the select committee. 
There is one key point though when we are discussing anything about the student loan scheme and that is we simply must acknowledge the size of it. The student loan scheme is an asset on the Crown’s balance sheet; the way I always like to put it is that it is an asset on the taxpayers’ balance sheet. Every New Zealander has lent that money at a zero percent interest rate to students to invest in their tertiary education. 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: Thanks to Labour. 
CRAIG FOSS 
: Thanks to whomever that is what taxpayers are doing so we have to manage that asset on the balance sheet. The size of student loans is $10.3 billion. Whether the scheme is interest-free or whatever it is still a significant item on our balance sheet. So it is very good that it is looked after measured and administered as well and efficiently as possible. 
As other members have noted the bill does not involve any policy change. It is mostly about the administration and implementation of the interest-free student loan scheme which has gone across Governments and continues under this Government. 
I have just a couple of other points. The National Government is working for better value for every single dollar in tertiary education—every single dollar. We are funding more student places than ever before because we are finding efficiencies in the tertiary sector. We want a more accountable and higher-performing sector and higher participation but with the constraints around the Budget every single cent and every single dollar is a very precious cent and dollar. We owe it to taxpayers—and future taxpayers who have a student loan right now—to use those tax dollars as efficiently as possible. Thank you.