Davis Kelvin: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Davis Kelvin: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9381] 
KELVIN DAVIS (Labour) 
: 
 It is great to have an opportunity to speak to the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill. In particular I make note of the part that extends our responsibilities to our relations from Niue Tokelau and the Cook Islands. I think that as a country we need to realise that we are not just an isolated island in the Pacific; we have responsibilities to other countries that depend on us. 
We also have a responsibility to Maori to make sure that Maori have full access to tertiary education so it was with some concern that we heard that the Minister for Tertiary Education Steven Joyce had his eye on student loans. We are not quite sure what that means. A lot of research describes how we need to make tertiary education more accessible for Maori and the Starpath research conducted out of Auckland University is something that we need to follow. We need to make it a lot easier for Maori to get into tertiary education—not just Maori but also our Pacific Island relations—instead of making it harder. 
I think it is really important that we realise that student loans are loans not gifts and that people who take out loans have to repay them. It is good to see in the bill that the Commissioner of Inland Revenue is able to increase the standard rate for repayment deductions from salary and wages from 10c in the dollar to 15c for borrowers who have failed to have the correct deductions made or to pay any other amount when it was due. The increased deductions will apply until any shortfall including any late payment penalties has been fully repaid. It is really important that we understand that that provision is in the bill. 
The Prime Minister has made the statement that he thinks that some students do not take their study seriously so they tend to drop out fail or not complete studies in the time they should. But many people do not know exactly what they will do when they finish university; they take different courses. My brother for example started his tertiary training doing a degree in business studies. Part-way through the first year he realised that it was not for him so he moved on and swapped to a Bachelor of Arts in Maori. That again was not enough for him. He ended up studying to become a lawyer and he is now a very successful lawyer. I was one of those people who went to teachers college and did not have to take out a loan. I went to teachers college after the system was in place that paid people to train to become teachers. I was in the middle of my training before the student loan system came about so I do not actually understand what it is like to have to repay a loan for study. I know that some people have loans that are bigger than many mortgages— 
Chris Hipkins 
: Bigger than  
Ben-Hur 
. 
KELVIN DAVIS 
: —bigger than  
Ben-Hur 
 as my colleague Chris Hipkins says. That is one of the factors that make it difficult for Maori to study at a tertiary level. The whole financial situation makes it really difficult. I am talking about a lot of friends and family up north; we struggle to get them to succeed at school in the first place. Then when they do succeed at school they find the financial barriers to move into university are too great for them and they do not go on to tertiary study in the first place. So the potential of the Minister to remove the interest-free element of the student loans would have a detrimental impact on the number of Maori who want to go into tertiary education. 
I was seriously concerned with the comment earlier on from the Hon Maurice Williamson that a bit of slash-and-burn never hurt anybody. The distance that some people on the opposite side of the Chamber have from folk on the ground who do struggle in these situations really concerns me. It is almost like saying that a bit of poverty never hurt anyone.