Little Andrew: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Little Andrew: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 26 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:8955. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ANDREW LITTLE (Labour) 
: 
 It is a pleasure to take a call on this bill the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2). I just point out that although Labour will support this bill and does support this bill it is a bill that deals with what is an unfair approach to funding tertiary education but it makes it a little fairer. In particular Part 3 and its redefinition of income means that those who can source their wealth—in particular their income—from sources that up until now would not have been captured by the definitions of income will now have that captured and that is entirely fair and appropriate. Without that it would mean that—and in fact there are people who can conceal hide or otherwise shelter their income and have it remain unassessable for the purposes of the student loan scheme and that is unfair because that is an approach that favours the wealthy and does not at all have an impact on those who find it more difficult to meet the rigorous requirements of repayment of loans under this sort of scheme. 
Let us remember that this scheme in the absence of full State funding of tertiary education and with an approach that requires more private funding for tertiary education at least knocks the rough edges off that approach. It means that it makes tertiary education accessible to people where it might not otherwise be so. But for that element of fairness to work it means that when it comes to repayment of those loans everybody should be treated in a fair and an appropriate sort of way. 
It is all very well for Mr Goldsmith to lament what he describes as the cost of the scheme and the fact that there is a large amount outstanding but actually the real measure is the number of people who now get to benefit from tertiary education. Or at least up until now because we know that those pressures are growing that those pressures are getting harder and that there are tertiary institutions where the pressure is now really on to lift fees and that is putting more pressure on the student loan scheme and more pressure on both students and of course graduates. The higher the fees are the more that has to be borrowed and the more that has to be borrowed the greater the pressure on graduates to repay it once they get out into the labour market and into the workforce. 
So in that respect the bill will help to make the scheme more viable long term by broadening the definition of income and that is a good thing—that is a welcome thing. Of course what I think is very welcome on this side of the Chamber as my colleague David Cunliffe pointed out is that that incentive which was really a godsend to those who could afford it—the very wealthy—to repay their loans very early and very quickly the 10 percent bonus will no longer apply so that everybody is treated fairly in that regard. If you accelerate your payments that is good for the scheme. If because of the job you go into—if you are a good hard-working Kiwi graduate and you go off to do some sort of honourable noble job like being a teacher or might I suggest a union lawyer—you will not be penalised because you do not have an income that means you can pay massive lump sums off your student loan. We should welcome that because this is not a Government that has enjoyed a particularly friendly relationship with teachers and even less so with union lawyers I might add from my experience. So I think these are very welcome changes and it is for that reason that we welcome it. 
But none of that should detract from the fact that every effort should be made when it comes to tertiary education to ensure that those who are talented those who display the aptitude and those who have the skills should have access to it. There are still people—young people in particular; not just young people but adult students as well—who are at a stage where they could perform well in tertiary education but simply do not have the means for whatever reason to get there and enjoy the benefits of it. The more people we can have enjoying tertiary education and lifting their skills the better that is for New Zealand as a whole. So anything that can be done to lower the barriers to make it easier and to create an incentive for people to get in there is good for New Zealand. For that reason we welcome measures like this we welcome this legislation and we will support it.