King Colin: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
King Colin: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8236] 
COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 In speaking to the title I say that the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) could be called quite a number of things. As my most valuable colleague Dr Paul Hutchison has alluded it could be called the “Database Matching Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill” or it could be the “Evidence-based Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill”. It could even be the “Poor Choice of Education Student Loan Amendment Bill” or the “Poorly Supported Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill”. I certainly hope the bill is not given that last title because we do want to see a strong uptake on this. As citizens of New Zealand we want to see the thousands of people who have student loans take up this scheme. 
As my learned colleague and chair of the Education and Science Committee has corrected me—and I stand corrected—a number of shearers did theatrical training with student component funding and I can say that it did help their footwork; they were very good. But it did make the instructor scratch his head at times and think on what planet was the person who advised the young adult to take it up and spend that money. I would like to think that there has been a lot more maturing of thinking around the value of tertiary education in the last 10 years and that in actual fact people are making better choices today. I think that another title we could probably give to the bill is the “Final Solution Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill”. On that basis I want to say how much of a pleasure it has been to work with the select committee on this bill. 
It is interesting to note that those people who have an obligation to repay a student loan and who have been overseas since the provision for interest-free loans was rolled out by the Labour Government—as my colleague Dr Hutchison has so accurately informed me it was an election bribe—have cost the country $143 million. This is from the time when it was signalled that there was to be an interest-free loan provision providing one stayed at home and committed oneself to this nation. There could be another title and it is possibly the foundations of a policy that I might take from New Zealand First—the “Best Immigrant Who Ever Comes Home is a New Zealand Citizen Bill”. It could also be called the “New Zealand Citizen (Return Home) Bill”. 
However whatever it is called I hope it does not become the beginning of a very long and drawn-out saga of disappointments and utter failure. I am quite confident it will not because what I have seen around this student loan scheme stuff is that $1 billion has been written off in bad debts. With the way it is going by 2014 or 2015 we will have something like $12.7 billion of debt. So I would not like to see that included in the title in any way. 
In fact student debt is growing at an alarming rate of $66 million a year. When we look at the total outstanding loan balance—which would not be a very nice title for the bill—we see that it is forecast to increase at an average of 5 percent a year. That 5 percent a year on the total is $526 million a year. In terms of the title of this bill there is an enormous amount of expectation from those of us who have been fortunate enough not to have to go to university and suffer some of the failures of education. We hope that those students who avail themselves of a 3-year repayment holiday do so fully informed. As they learn to access all the in-depth research process and structure around getting a PhD in something we hope that they know how to pay their loan back. 
I do not have a lot more to add but I have been very blessed with the privilege of being able to have my say on behalf of those without student loans who are doing their utmost to be successful and to pay our taxes. I am sure as my information tells me that for those with loans the fact that they have a loan does not stop them from doing an awful lot regardless of what they owe.