Dunne Peter: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
Dunne Peter: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8234] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Revenue) 
: 
 I will begin by thanking members who have expressed admiration for the contribution of officials. I work with these officials on a daily basis and I thoroughly concur with the sentiments that have been expressed. We are very well served by our Inland Revenue Department policy people and their ability to go to the heart of complex issues and provide relatively clear solutions is I think unparalleled. So I appreciate the support that members from around the Chamber have given to them this evening. 
I also acknowledge the work that the Education and Science Committee did—in particular the Hon Brian Donnelly as chair—in dealing with an issue that by its own admission was a little bit outside the norm. I think the committee has done a good job and I am very grateful for the amendments that it has written into the bill. 
I want to pick up on the question that has been raised by some speakers about the disclosure regime in the bill—the data matching and the very tight way in which it has been drawn. That is highly deliberate. The Tax Administration Act and the Income Tax Act have very tight provisions about access to taxpayer information and most of that power resides in the commissioner. As Minister I have very limited ability to access anyone’s tax details and that is entirely as it should be. So when this provision was being drafted it was critical that it was described in such a way that the information being collected about individuals was relevant only to the issue at hand and did not allow people to go on a wider fishing expedition to see what else those individuals had lurking in the background. 
I think Mr King made reference to the child support scheme. I should just foreshadow that we are looking at a similar data-matching arrangement in respect of child support to help us better match some of those people who are overseas with obligations that are outstanding—people whom we are not getting our hands on at the moment. I stop the analogy at that point because Mr King did express a concern that we might end up writing off large amounts of student loan debt in the way we are alleged to be doing in regard to child support. I tell members that in the area of child support we are saying that if people enter into arrangements to repay we will look to writing off a portion of the penalty provision of their debt rather than their actual principal. What we are saying here in regard to student loans is that we want people to enter into a voluntary arrangement with us to disclose and we want them to take the holiday. At that point they will then become absolved of penalties for that 3-year period but the interest payments will still apply to the loan and will need to be repaid once they return to New Zealand. So it is a different arrangement from the child support regime but it does have the similarity of putting the onus on to in this case the borrower—and in that case the liable parent—to meet his or her responsibilities. 
This picks up a theme mentioned by speakers in the earlier debate. There is a balance between rights and responsibilities in this whole area. We do acknowledge the ability and the wish of young people to be able to travel and not be encumbered by debt. At the same time we expect them to recognise their responsibilities. The mechanisms here with regard to the data match in particular will make it easier for us to track where they are so that they simply do not escape the coop altogether—as they are doing in too many numbers today. Again as I said at the beginning it is a pragmatic outcome it is one that will work and I am grateful for the support members have given it tonight. 
Part 2 agreed to.