Wall Louisa: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Wall Louisa: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 20 September 2012. Volume:684;Page:5553. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa) 
: 
 Kia ora. It is my pleasure to speak in the first reading of the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) in the name of the Hon Peter Dunne. Labour supports this bill going to the Finance and Expenditure Committee. 
When I was asked to speak about this bill I thought about my own situation. I had a student loan. My parents could not afford to pay for me to go to university. I also had a student allowance. I recognise that the scheme which started in 1992—I borrowed in 1998—was for people like me people who came from communities where the parents of my generation did not go to university. I am a bit of an anomaly in my community because I have gone there. What I entered into with the Government was a social contract. That social contract was about my increasing the education that I had so that I could be a better citizen of our country. 
I think the intention of this bill is good. Why should we differentiate between borrowers or people who get loans who live in New Zealand versus those who live overseas? In fact the intention of this bill is really good. Of the approximate total of 465000 students in our tertiary education system half are borrowers and of that half approximately 91000 live overseas. The biggest issue that we have is that those 91000 students owe $2.3 billion. In fact 41 percent of them are not paying towards their student loan. So we do have a problem. This bill is trying to rectify that. 
But what I would like to have actually is a profile of who these people are. Have these people who no longer live in New Zealand completed their tertiary studies? If they have obviously they are going to be in a much better position because we know that through tertiary education you can earn a lot more money. I am really interested in the types of vocations they are engaged in. I am really interested in the gender difference because what we do know is that 5 years post study there is an 18 percent difference between what men earn and what women earn. I also want to pick up on some of the concerns of my Green colleague Holly Walker. What is the future for these 91000 New Zealanders who are not living in New Zealand? Do we want them to come back to New Zealand and be productive citizens here? So I think some investigation does need to be made a case by case analysis of how much people borrowed whenever they borrowed it and in fact how much they owe now. One of the case studies I have read is about a gentleman who borrowed $7000 and he now owes $157000. He is not going to come back to New Zealand. He is going to stay in Australia where he currently is. I do think he should pay something back but what should that amount be? Should it be $157000 or should he pay back what he borrowed—you know the $7000 that he borrowed in the first place? 
 What this bill will do is broaden the definition of income to include income from trust companies superannuation schemes etc. That is fair because we should be including that income for all people. Secondly we will look at information sharing between the Customs Service and the Inland Revenue Department. Again if we want to find out who these 91000 people are then we will have to actually implement a scheme like that. 
I want to reinforce the position that we have on this side of the House. We will support the bill going to the select committee but we do that with the intention of having some advice from the Privacy Commissioner. We think that this information sharing does open up privacy issues so obviously we want to hear from the expert in this area. Fundamentally the point I want to make again is that the investment that the Government makes in all New Zealand citizens is a valuable one and we should be treating New Zealanders who live in New Zealand and New Zealanders who choose to live in other countries the same within the context of ensuring that they pay back their loans. Thank you.