Sepuloni Carmel: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Sepuloni Carmel: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9380] 
CARMEL SEPULONI (Labour) 
: 
 I will touch on something that Gareth Hughes said in respect of commending the Labour Government for taking interest off student loans in 2005. I have to say as someone who had a student loan that prior to that happening I did not see my loan go down very much; I need to mention that. 
David Garrett 
: Did you graduate? 
CARMEL SEPULONI 
: Yes I tell Mr Garrett that I graduated. I will do something along the lines of what Maryan Street was doing and just look at aspects of this bill in relation to the public comments that have been made recently on the student loan scheme and the National Party’s history with respect to the tertiary education system in general. But I will do my best to stick to the bill. 
We have discussed Labour’s support for the aspect of this bill that will mean that those from territories of New Zealand—Niue the Cook Islands Tokelau and the Ross Dependency—will be able to have interest-free student loans. One thing has just come up in discussions with colleagues. I guess this question is directed to the Minister in the chair the Minister of Revenue; it would be nice if he were listening to my question. We support these students getting interest-free loans when they return to their homeland whether it be Niue the Cook Islands Tokelau or the Ross Dependency. My question is whether the Government has taken into consideration any additional measures or mechanisms that may need to be put in place to ensure that those students who return to the Cook Islands Niue Tokelau or the Ross Dependency—I do not know who lives there—actually have some sort of mechanism for paying back their student loans. That is one thing we do not see in the existing bill at this stage; I have asked my colleagues who were on the select committee and they are unsure about that one too. So we would like a response from the Minister with regard to that question. 
We totally recognise that it is important that those who wish to return to the territories of New Zealand have the opportunity to do so in order that they can contribute to their people and to their communities but we need to make sure that some measures are in place because if they go there for a lifetime and they have left this country with a $40000 student loan then we would like to see that it be paid back. 
That is one aspect that we have covered. I will just talk about that aspect too in relation to what we have seen recently with public comments on the student loan scheme. This bill is basically saying that we support our students from the territories of New Zealand and that we provide them with the same opportunities and provisions with regard to interest-free loans that those who live in New Zealand get. But I am concerned about the public comments that allude to the fact that this Government may go down the track of making student loans less accessible which will unfortunately affect those who are marginalised or under-represented in our tertiary education system as it stands. 
The reason I am raising it is that on the one hand it looks like we are supporting Pacific students from territories of New Zealand to be able to go back to their countries and contribute there but on the other hand it looks like this National Government is at the same time going down the track of limiting the opportunities for students who need to access student loans so that they can do that. That is a very valid concern and I am sure that even though we are in the Committee stage in discussing the bill public comments that have been made recently on the student loan scheme also need to be taken into consideration as in some ways it feels like there is a sense of contradiction in respect of what this bill is saying and what is being said publicly. 
When we look through Part 1 we see that another aspect of this bill is that late payment penalties will be put in place for those who are not using the correct tax codes and for those who may be perceived to be trying to rort the system in some way in respect of actually paying off their student loans when they get into employment. We support that aspect.