Sio William: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Sio William: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:678;Page:1445] 
SU’A WILLIAM SIO (Labour—Mangere) 
: 
 When my colleague Chris Hipkins announced that the commencement clause would repeal the interest-free aspects of the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill I noticed that the other members on the other side of the Chamber seemed surprised. It seemed like this was a revelation to them. I notice also that the Minister in the chair the Minister of Immigration did not appear to be all that confident about what my colleague has revealed. I am going to echo the call that both Mr Hipkins and Mr Robertson have asked for and that is to ask the Minister in the chair or even the chair of the Finance and Expenditure Committee whether they would stand and explain why it is that such an important aspect of this bill—an aspect that will have ramifications and dire consequences for thousands of students the length and breadth of New Zealand—is hidden inside this commencement part of the bill. I would have thought that such an important aspect which is going to affect the future generations of this country would have been revealed for the entire Committee to see that it would have been pointed out directly for all to see and that a significant part of the report be paid to it—but as it is it is not. So we have had to find out through our research that that particular part of the commencement does repeal the interest-free aspects of the bill which again changes the debate around the title of this bill. 
What we are now seeing is that this does not reveal the complete truth about what students should be aware of when it comes to student loans. In fact the title of this whole bill is wrong. We should not even be calling it the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill because that itself does not reveal this key aspect. It certainly does not reveal that this Government is repealing the interest-free loans for students and it certainly does not reveal the fact that we are doing away with the 3-year repayment holiday period and diminishing that to 1 year. If you consider the whole environment currently where there is massive unemployment and people are struggling to find jobs and this bill is suggesting that we cut the holiday from 3 years to 1 year how on earth are we expecting these young people new graduates from university to be able to repay? I have to ask again will the Minister sitting next to you Mr Chairman please take a call and explain for the benefit of the Committee as to why the repeal of interest-free loans has not been highlighted for the Committee to note. It is hidden in this commencement part here and it does change the whole aspect of this entire debate.  
Yesterday I would have supported this bill. Today because of the Trojan Horse nature of this Government and the way that this Government is not revealing for all students to know the entire truth about this I am not going to be supporting it. I know my colleagues stand united in saying that this is the wrong thing to do for students and it is the wrong thing to do for New Zealand. I say to you again I ask that Minister to please take a call and respond. There are hundreds—thousands even—of students listening to this debate and they would want for this Government to be open and transparent by revealing why it has hidden this particular aspect which is a very important aspect of the bill and why it has not even made mention of it in any part of the reports that I have seen. The Government has a lot of explaining to do. I think you owe it to this Committee to demand in fact Minister or even of the chair of the select committee to explain— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! The member cannot bring the Chair into the debate in the manner in which he is.  
SU’A WILLIAM SIO 
: I apologise. I simply was asking by way of the speech that I think we need to compel that Minister and even the chair of the select committee to explain. I do not know whether it is deliberate or not but I suspect that people listening to the debate will make their own judgment and will suspect that there has been a deliberate attempt by this Government to not reveal that it is repealing the interest-free aspect of this bill. It is the wrong title. In fact the Government should just call it the “Repeal of Interest-free Loans Bill” or it could call this bill the “Broken Promises Bill” because as I understand it this Prime Minister—