Hipkins Chris: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Hipkins Chris: Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 24 May 2012. Volume:680;Page:2475. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Chairperson—I am very happy to take those. As I was saying before I was rudely interrupted by the break last night it is slightly ironic to be here debating the Taxation (Budget Measures) Bill only a few years after the National Government introduced it. We heard from the likes of the revenue Minister Peter Dunne that he could not fathom why anybody would oppose it—he could not fathom why anybody would oppose it. And here he is in the chair today and doing away with that very measure that he could not fathom why anyone would oppose.  
There are other National members who had quite a lot to say on this as well—Louise Upston for example. Louise Upston was very very supportive of this—very supportive. “The message very clearly” she said “is that our young people will be debt-free sooner” which was going to be the result of this bonus repayment scheme—this absolute rort that the Ministry of Education has pointed out has resulted in an increase in the number of people who borrow for 1 year and pay it back straight away so that they can benefit from the repayment bonuses.  
I think it is a good thing that the Government is doing away with this particular piece of very bad legislation which it rushed through in 2009 as part of its effort to look like it did care about students. Well of course we know it does not care about students now because of all the other mean nasty things it has done to students like trimming their allowances— 
Louise Upston 
: So how much more money are we putting in education—do you know the figure? 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: What was that? 
Louise Upston 
: How much more are we putting in education? 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: Not much more into student support; in fact probably less into student support—far less into student support. I am willing to wager that the growth in tertiary education funding is less than the growth in the overall tertiary student population and the rising cost of tertiary education. I would say overall in real terms per student it is going down. I would be willing to bet that and suddenly the Government is very very quiet. Their heads are down and they have nothing to say about that—nothing to say about that. Doing away with this very half-baked scheme cooked up by Steven Joyce back in about 2007 is a good thing. It is a good— 
Grant Robertson 
: Actually I think it might have been Anne Tolley. 
CHRIS HIPKINS 
: It might have been Anne Tolley. It is funny you should mention that because Anne Tolley said: “We estimate that this measure will reduce repayment times of those who take up the bonus by 1.5 years and we believe that it will decrease the upfront cost of new lending to 39.4c. How could anyone vote against that?”. And now she is going to do exactly that. She is going to vote against it by voting to repeal it. It was a stupid thing to put in place in the first place.  
The Labour Party pointed out all of the flaws with it when it was first introduced. The Government ignored us and now it has finally come round—it has finally come round. I think I will give credit where credit is due: it is a good thing that it is doing away with this repayment bonus. It does not make any sense and it was a ridiculous thing to do in the first place.