Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Donald Rod: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:617;Page:12551] 
11.  
ROD DONALD (Co-Leader—Green) 
 to the  
Prime Minister 
: Does her Government intend to introduce a universal student allowance given her statement to the 1995 Labour Party conference that: “My aim is to return to a universal student allowance.”? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK (Prime Minister) 
: 
 No. However in my statement to Parliament in February I said that this year’s Budget will provide for more students to qualify for allowances from the 2005 academic year and the member will learn more about that on 27 May. 
Rod Donald 
: What message does that answer give to the 30000 students and other New Zealanders who signed the petition presented in Parliament today calling for an end to discrimination against students under 25 calling for an end to discrimination against students whose parents earn above a miserly $28000—a level that has not been inflation adjusted for 10 years—and calling for the introduction of a living allowance equivalent to the unemployment benefit? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The message firstly as I have said is that the issue of how many qualify for the allowance will be addressed in the Budget. The message secondly is that this Government has to prioritise and if all students were to be paid at the level of the unemployment benefit it is estimated that the cost would be $5.5 billion over 4 years. 
Peter Brown 
: What representation has the Prime Minister or the Government had from the Greens and United Future in particular strongly advocating for the introduction of a student living allowance—any or none at all? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: I have seen various public statements from the Greens consistent with what has been said today in respect of any input United Future might have had into the Budget. That is a matter that would have to be addressed to the Minister of Finance. 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: Is the Prime Minister of the view that the existing parental income threshold set in 1992 is too low and that the 25-year age categorisation for eligibility for student support is too high; and are those matters that will be addressed as they are matters that have been raised with her colleague by United Future over the last few months in discussions? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: The answer to the first part of the question is yes the threshold for eligibility needs to be addressed. In respect of the second part yes we could all mount coherent arguments as to why 25 is too high; the problem is that reducing it also costs money and the Government has over 4½ years put quite a lot more money into tertiary education. It has also enabled students to have fees frozen and then to have increases from this year capped at quite low levels of increase plus it has done quite a lot on the student loans side. But the amount of money taken out of tertiary education in the 1990s was so great that it cannot be rectified overnight. 
Peter Brown 
: Is it not possible that a student living allowance could be phased in over a period of years? Is that part of the Government’s plans; if so how long will it take to phase it in to equal the unemployment benefit? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: No it is not part of our plan. What we are doing as I have said is making some adjustments to bring more students into the allowance net in this year’s Budget. 
Rod Donald 
: Does the Prime Minister agree that her statement in her 1995 speech that “I don’t want young people’s lives blighted by huge debts they can never pay off.” sounds hollow given that student debt has risen from $2.8 billion when she became Prime Minister to over $7 billion now? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: As the member will be aware the level of debt per student has flattened out since the Government came in and certain changes were made. Of course not only has there been the change that interest is not charged during the period while students are studying but also the repayment terms are fairer than they were in the past. 
Rod Donald 
: How does the Prime Minister justify the retention of tertiary policies such as the targeted allowance tuition fees at their current level and the loan scheme when they have been clearly shown to discriminate against women? 
Rt Hon HELEN CLARK 
: When the Government put out the consultation document on student support research was brought together on the way in which New Zealand students overall were treated as against students in other Western countries and the conclusion that was drawn was that students in New Zealand on average are treated pretty much the same as students elsewhere. It would be nice to do all sorts of things but the Government does have to prioritise.