Mackey Moana: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Mackey Moana: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:9411] 
MOANA MACKEY (Labour) 
: 
 I am happy to take a call on these clauses and I too have some suggestions for alternative names for this legislation. This legislation which Labour will be supporting is of course part of a much bigger picture around interest-free student loans. The title could be “Student Loan Scheme (I’m Glad the First Piece of Legislation We’ve Had Come to the House Isn’t Very Bad But I Worry About the Next Ones) Amendment Bill”. We know as my colleague Maryan Street has said that the interest-free student loan scheme is in trouble. We know that National does not like interest-free student loans because it rallied vociferously against them when the previous Labour Government introduced them. We were told that the interest-free loans were corrupt. In fact John Key said they were corrupt— 
Lynne Pillay 
: “Irresponsible”. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: —“irresponsible”. They were a bribe says the man who I bet never had a student loan. That brings me to my second suggestion for a title: “Student Loan Scheme (Why Don’t You Actually Ask Students Who Have a Loan About What It’s Like to Have a Student Loan) Amendment Bill”. One of the things that concern me is that even in this debate we have been lectured at length by people from the Government who have never had a student loan. I have had a student loan. I had it at the worst time to have a student loan in the 1990s. I had it when I was paying interest while I was studying. It was daily compounding interest. I was working 20 hours a week. I say to Government members that if they are concerned about people who are failing their courses look at how many hours that students have to work to support themselves which should be hours spent studying but they are working long hours to support themselves. I worked 20 hours a week while I was at university and it was to the detriment of my studies. I did not fail but I could have done an awful lot better if I had been able to focus solely on my studies and not have to worry about how the rent would be paid or how we would be able to afford to pay the power bill that week. 
The title “Student Loan Scheme (Why Don’t You Actually Ask Students Who Have a Loan About What’s It’s Like to Have a Student Loan) Amendment Bill” might be a good way to go. We have heard some pretty patronising speeches about how I should just be grateful that I had a student loan. Well I was not grateful for it. I was grateful that I got to go to university but I was not grateful for the fact that I worked 20 hours a week to keep my loan down. I was at university for 4 years and I left university with a loan of about $15000 or $16000. By the time I had graduated the loan was already into the $20000s and I had not even started working yet. I was not grateful for that aspect of the student loan scheme. 
I notice that all the members opposite who are chipping away had free university education and I ask them again why they do not actually talk to people who went through the scheme. If members do not understand the incentives around repayment then how can they put that into place in the policy? If they do not understand what it is like to have a student loan what it is like to think that one will never pay it off— 
Hon Georgina te Heuheu 
: She thinks that some of us have never had offspring with student loans. Some of us have. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: I say to Minister Te Heuheu that people can think they will never be able to pay it off because when they graduate the 10 percent that comes out of their income automatically is actually less than the interest for that period so they are repaying their loan and it is going up and up. So people think they will never be able to repay it. Those members opposite who have never had that experience should talk to people who have and they will tell them what they need to do— 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: Get the facts. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: Paula Bennett who had the training incentive allowance to help her get off the domestic purposes benefit and then cut it for every other domestic purposes benefit mother who wanted to get off the benefit should probably— 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: Look at the facts. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: How did the Minister get to university? 
Hon Paula Bennett 
: I had a student loan actually. 
MOANA MACKEY 
: How did the Minister get a student loan to go to university? That Minister cut the tertiary training incentive allowance to every other domestic purposes benefit mother who wanted to get off the benefit. She pulled the ladder up behind her after that scheme helped her to get off the domestic purposes benefit. Good on her for doing that but I think it is mildly repugnant when the scheme that that Minister benefited from was cut so that no other domestic purposes benefit mother could climb that same ladder. 
But I come back to the bill and suggest the title “Student Loan Scheme (Save Our Interest-free Student Loan) Amendment Bill”. The interest-free student loan scheme is at risk. We can see from the reaction of those on the other side how much they do not like having to listen to us explain about the value of the interest-free student loan scheme. I am proud about Labour’s record in this area. I am proud that the first thing we did when we became the Government was to remove the interest from loans while students were studying because that was horribly unfair.