Swarbrick ChlöeCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe. Tēnā koutou e Te Whare. I want to join with a number of my colleagues across the House in acknowledging that the world has changed actually quite dramatically since these annual reviews were completed but in some ways it actually hasn't changed all too much. As I've already said before in this House the Secretary of Education in speaking about the need to provide particularly school children with technologies to access education online said—and I quote—This pandemic did not create inequity; in fact it has exposed it." In my brief contribution on behalf of the Green Party of Aotearoa today I want to focus on the issue of tertiary education and I want to just put a few numbers out there to begin with. If anybody wants to shout it out or to contribute guess what these numbers are: 1.33 million—1.33 million New Zealanders have taken out student loans since they were introduced in 1992. Then $220630: $220630 is the current average balance on a student loan. And $16 billion is a figure that should resonate at least with a few tertiary education spokespeople in the room given that it was this year that the New Zealand Union of Students' Associations celebrated or perhaps lamented the $16 billion worth of student debt which that currently sits at. Going through this annual review there have been a number of kind of comments which I think have been ultimately constructive but have highlighted what the Hon Nikki Kaye spoke of as ideological differences. She actually at that point in time was speaking about the fact that this Government was led by ideology. Again I would point out the fact that every single political party in Parliament is led by ideology—that is in fact the values which shape the kinds of investments that we choose to make and the society that we hope to shape off the back of it. Oftentimes when we are hearing from particularly members of the Opposition around the likes of fees-free and their critique of it that is pertaining to what they see as the lack of numbers of students who have taken it up. They see the focus of fees-free as increasing participation. I'm not sure—and I can't defend the Minister on this point—as to whether that was ever anything that he sought to sell that policy on. But it definitely has always for us—and I presume for the Minister as well—been a matter of removing those barriers and reducing that inequity that the Secretary of Education Iona Holsted spoke to. I want to speak just in summary to some of the points that have been made in dialogue around how we pay for education moving forward—particularly noting as Dr Shane Reti did that we are looking down the barrel of taking on more debt as a nation and we have to be quite thoughtful about what we choose to spend that money on and I've had an interesting dialogue with a member of the public on my Facebook page of all places about why it should be the place of so-called working people to pay for those who are going through a university education. Here if I may quote just from the response that I gave this individual they said "It is the education that ultimately improves society for all of us not just the one student. Education builds public infrastructure technological innovation stronger and more resilient communities. The argument regularly goes that those who pursue higher education should treat it as a financial bet to earn more in the future but that's simply not the case for teachers nurses or many of the other roles that we have taken for granted historically who do not do it for the money nor the status nor the glory but because those people want to contribute. So why should those who actively improve society for all of us carry the anchor of debt? "And for those who do make more money from an education why shouldn't they in turn pay fair taxation so that all kids from all walks of life and all other working-class folks from a diversity of different backgrounds are able to access those same opportunities that they did? New Zealanders on the minimum wage are far closer to the students than they are to the people who are telling us to fight each other "If you're on the minimum wage and struggling to get by your enemy is not students. In fact your beef should be with those who are seeking to tell you that you do not deserve that same education." Quite the opposite of Dr Shane Reti we'll be pushing for a freer education. CHAIRPERSON (Hon Anne Tolley): Yeah I'd just remind the member that this was actually set up particularly as a question and answer. It wasn't time to make speeches and actually it was focused on the annual review and the COVID response and I don't think the member fulfilled any of that."