Hutchison Paul: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8235] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 Thank you Madam Chair for the opportunity to speak on the title and commencement of the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2). We have heard that all the major parties of Parliament are in agreement that it is appropriate to get this bill through the House. We have heard that the Education and Science Committee members worked well together under the chairmanship of the Hon Brian Donnelly and we have also heard that the Inland Revenue Department has been very forthcoming in being open and helpful towards fixing this very very complex tangle that the Labour Government has got itself into with regard to having brought in interest-free student loans. 
One might ask what other names we could we call this bill. Maybe we could call it the “Labour Government (Let Us Dream up Another Complex Bureaucratic Fix to Our Election Bribe) Bill” or maybe we could call it the “When You Sin by Bribing It Will Come Back to Bite You Bill”. There is no doubt that the title “Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2)” does not convey the complexity of the bill. I think it is worthwhile to again point out the complexity created by the Labour Government’s machinations in order to get into power. 
What did the Law Society say? Its submission has a section headed “Complexity of the Repayment Holiday and Amnesty Provisions”. In it the society states: “The provisions of the bill that provide for a borrower’s entitlement to a 3-year holiday and in particular the way the amnesty eligibility ties in with that entitlement are unnecessarily complex.” The society goes on to state: “A review of the provisions proposed for Part 9 of the Act shows that borrowers who are wishing to ascertain their amnesty and/or repayment holiday entitlement will be required to work their way through a series of cross-referenced and complex provisions in the Act.” It notes further: “…this complexity may be a barrier to borrowers being able to simply and with certainty ascertain their entitlement to amnesty and/or a repayment holiday.” 
So it certainly seems as though the Labour Government true to form has once again woven a tangled web of highly complex bureaucratic arrangements. I hope that the Minister Peter Dunne will take a call later on and explain to the Committee what he intends to do to ensure that the amnesty arrangements and the provisions for extension are clearly made public and clearly made understandable to future student borrowers. 
We have this major problem in New Zealand of a diaspora of 1 million and for a population of 4 million that is fairly extensive. I understand that perhaps even more serious is the fact that our diaspora of postgraduates is something like 10 times the number of Australian postgraduates who are overseas. That is the reason National is supporting this bill. Despite its complexity and the machinations of the Labour Government to stay in power etc. we are concerned about our students. We want our brightest and best to come back to New Zealand to live and to have highly productive lives here rather than live overseas. There is no doubt that the basic thrust of this legislation is indeed to encourage our students who have gone overseas to come back here to New Zealand. 
But I think we must not forget that this bill is the result of consequences of actions taken by the Labour Government to stay in power. Organisations like Business New Zealand have pointed out as well that this bill certainly is not perfect in any way.