Goldsmith Paul: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 06 March 2014. Volume:696;Page:16437. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): The previous speaker David Clark obviously came from the school that says that if you do not have a strong argument shout. That was his approach for that speech. It really surprises me because the Labour Party says that it supports the general principle that loan borrowers should meet repayment obligations for the money they have borrowed from the Crown. That is what it says. But when it comes to it Labour does not really want to do anything about it. The reality is that we have a problem with default for people not paying back their loans when they go overseas. We have 110000 overseas borrowers at the moment and 61370 of them are in default with an amount outstanding of $543 million and the total loan balance is estimated to be around $3 billion.That according to the Labour Party is not a problem it is not an issue and it is a ridiculous thing to even try to get it back whereas we here in the National Party take the responsible view towards taxpayers and the people who have borrowed money from the scheme. The responsible thing to do is to make sure that people pay their loans back. The alternative it seems to me is to carry on doing nothing. So when we know that somebody has a very large loan outstanding to fellow New Zealanders we just say hello to them at the airport say “Thanks. Have a nice day.” and do nothing about it. Well we are not going to do that any more and this proposal is for only when every other opportunity and avenue to encourage people to pay back their loans has been exhausted—to have a final sanction in place. I think that that is absolutely appropriate and very much in tune with the thoughts and needs of New Zealanders who want to make sure that their money is spent wisely.The Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) is part of National making the student loan scheme sustainable into the future because we know that we are not going to get very far if we are not even concerned about $543 million being owed to fellow New Zealanders and we are not going to lift a finger about getting it back. It seems to be a theme. There seems to be a theme in the Labour Party at the moment that you say one thing and you do another. You thunder about trusts and you have one of your own. You thunder about the politics of envy in leafy suburbs but you live in one yourself. You say that you care about paying back loans but when it comes to the crunch you do not do anything about it—you do not do anything about it. So this debate is all about making sure that the more than 100000 overseas-based borrowers do their duty and pay back those loans.I just want to drill into one area here that we are talking about. The potential for arrest at the border is a targeted measure aimed at those who consistently fail to meet their responsibility to repay their loans. I do want to say that there were some constructive comments during the select committee process particularly from the New Zealand First Party—not so much from the Labour Party unfortunately and the Greens still seem to have a rather adolescent attitude to all this which is that somehow we should just throw the money at everybody and it is not a big deal if they do not pay back the $543 million that is owed to fellow taxpayers. This bill is a responsible bill. It is about bringing some discipline back to the scheme. We have been stepping away very carefully very cautiously and sending a clear message that we expect people to pay back their loans. I think that is fitting and appropriate and on that basis I commend this bill to the House.