Logie Jan: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:8355. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
: 
 Tonight I add another Green Party voice to our opposition to this bill the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2)—this technical little tidying-up bill. We are opposing it primarily because of its interaction with the existing system which as my colleague Holly Walker pointed out very ably in her speech previously has been significantly eroded by this current Government. The provisions of fairness in this system have been significantly eroded. 
I need to add my voice to the position that the initial system was not exactly fair in the first place. It represented a massive transference of collected debt to the individual in this country and has entrenched and exacerbated the inequalities that exist by individualising that debt rather than taking the opportunity for us as a country to share that burden as well as the benefits of educating our entire population. 
We believe this bill misses the boat and although we can say that the changes are technical and small by the interaction with the existing system they do not help us as a country and therefore we will be opposing it. 
Essentially there are two main changes in the bill. One aligns the definition of “income” for student loan purposes with that being used for Working for Families. The second makes it easier for customs officials to share information with the Inland Revenue Department to track down borrowers who are overseas and to make it easier for them to repay their loans which sounds fine. 
To go into a bit more detail to explain why we are not supporting the bill I should say for us it is in regard to the Working for Families definition of income alignment. The primary reason for not supporting it is that it is such a glaringly lost opportunity to rectify an injustice that is unfairly reducing money in the wallets of families who are trying to study and improve their situation. 
Although the bill aligns the definition for student loan purposes with the definition for Working for Families a corresponding change is desperately needed so that Working for Families entitlements can be calculated after student loan repayments are taken into account. Until that happens the Green Party cannot support the changes in this bill. 
All too many families in New Zealand at the moment are living in poverty and all too many of these families are locked into unemployment and low-paid work because of the policies of this Government one of which has been the limiting of access and the increase in disincentives to higher study. Calculating Working for Families entitlements before student loan repayments is a very clear example of locking people out of higher education which is a key tool in furthering their position in life. So this we clearly cannot support. 
Secondly on the matter of sharing information between the Customs Service and the Inland Revenue Department to chase up overseas borrowers—of course we support people following through on their commitments. Entering into a loan agreement is a commitment so we support people following through on paying those debts. However we do note that the Government has reduced the repayment holiday from 3 years to 1 year and that is something we did not support because we recognise the value of overseas travel to New Zealanders and the real importance to our economy of ensuring that people can come back easily. The sharing of this information when we do not have good systems in place to enable people to interact with our Government agencies here from overseas actually increases the potential of people not coming back. They have not been able to set up those systems and now those people are scared to come back because they are going to be caught at the border.