Street Maryan: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Street Maryan: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9355] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I rise basically in support of the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill but to begin with I need to draw attention to the complete shambles that has developed in this House because of the taking of urgency. This may be the one bill in the whole panoply of bills that the Government has put up under urgency that actually warrants urgency because some action is required to be taken by 1 April. But this bill is about the only one that does. Even this bill was teetering on the brink of not being able to be introduced into the House for its second reading because there was not a competent Minister in the Chamber to move the motion. The Government whips had no sense of anticipation that because of the shambles that was developing over the previous bill under consideration they needed to alert the Minister in charge of this bill the Hon Peter Dunne to get to the House promptly so that he could take it up. In the event two Ministers the Hon Chris Finlayson and the Hon Paula Bennett were sitting in the House but neither of them had the wit to get up and even move procedurally or do some kind of form speech while waiting presumably for the whips to ring the relevant Minister’s office to get the relevant Minister to the Chamber pronto. 
This is a complete shambles. This is what happens when a Government tries to avoid question time when it has been trying to use the procedures of this House in order to defend indefensible Ministers. This particular bill warrants urgency. I am—and we in the Labour Party are—perfectly happy to acknowledge that it warrants urgency. We support this bill. But this cannot go past without some trenchant criticism of the process by which we have got to this moment. In the urgency motion there was a raft of legislation that did not need to be taken under urgency. It was clearly a ruse and a device that allowed the Government to let its panicked panicky Ministers—such as the Minister of Education Anne Tolley or the Minister of Housing Phil Heatley—to get off the hook and not be subjected to the kind of grilling their performance in the task of being a Minister of the Crown absolutely demands that they be subjected to in the process of question time. This cannot go past without comment. Although we are now at the second reading of the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill I have to say that it is only by the skin of its teeth and by some cooperation on our part that this bill is reaching this stage in any kind of order. That fact goes to the competence of the Leader of the House Gerry Brownlee and to the attention paid by the Government whips to what is actually transpiring in the House as we proceed. 
However there is one other thing I wish to raise in relation to the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill. Between the time this legislation was first introduced into the House was referred to the Education and Science Committee and appeared for its second reading we have had a change of Minister for Tertiary Education. Although this is a bill that rightly comes under the purview of the Minister of Revenue it will be interesting in the Committee stage if the new Minister for Tertiary Education responds to some of this debate so that we can discover whether the Minister of Revenue has briefed him about this bill. This is about the student loan scheme it is about miscellaneous provisions and it refers to exemptions. It will be interesting to see whether the fact that the new Minister Steven Joyce—who was brought in to repair the damaged and broken relationships between this Government and the tertiary education sector which resulted from the stewardship of the previous Minister for Tertiary Education—has student loans in his sights has any bearing upon this current legislation. 
This legislation extends the student loan scheme to all those within the Realm of New Zealand and that is a good thing. We support that despite the fact that there are not many in the Ross Dependency who are likely to take this up—we may have the best educated penguins in the world. We are supportive of the extension of the scheme to people in Niue Tokelau and the Cook Islands. However I am somewhat at a loss to know quite what the direction of the student loan scheme will be under the new Minister for Tertiary Education. He has made it explicit that although he acknowledges it was a political call to maintain interest-free student loans—in other words the Government would have taken a real drubbing on this issue at the general election had it not decided to continue to support it—he has decided that he will make it harder for students to access student loans. This is clearly on the agenda of this Government under the new Minister. The previous Minister’s relationships with the tertiary sector were in such a parlous state that she was beginning to not even meet with them any longer. 
Carmel Sepuloni 
: She was in a helicopter flying over them. 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: She was busy in helicopters. However the point is that we have had a change in direction around student loans from the new Minister. If he makes it harder for people to access student loans how does this legislation which extends student loans to people throughout the Realm of New Zealand in that old terminology square with the new Minister’s intentions? Will the loans be harder to access? 
One of the provisions in this legislation will permit the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to increase the standard rate of repayment deductions from 10c to 15c in the dollar where borrowers have failed to have correct deductions made or failed to pay any other due amount. I understand the Green Party’s objection to making that burden harder but I think it is also incumbent upon the Government to ensure that people are not abusing and misusing the scheme. The vast majority of students whom I know and to whom I talk have been deeply grateful for an interest-free student loan policy because they absolutely need this money to get through their studies. The amount of abuse is infinitesimal compared with the number of those who use the scheme for its correct purpose. 
We support the bill albeit recognising the Green Party’s objection in its minority report from the select committee. We are not objecting to incentivising people to pay back their loan. However I do not see how this legislation as it stands now will fit in with the Minister’s express desire to make it harder for students to access loans therefore making it harder for people to access tertiary education and therefore reducing the number of students in our tertiary institutions which will reduce the expense to the Government. I hope that the Minister of Revenue has already taken this up with the new Minister for Tertiary Education. Thank you.