Faafoi Kris: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Faafoi Kris: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you very much Mr Chair for giving me the opportunity to speak to the title and commencement of the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill. A number of suggestions were put forward by Grant Robertson as to a better title for this bill but I would like to suggest that we call it the “Student Loan Scheme (Second Wave Attack by National) Amendment Bill”. We saw the first wave attack come in its first term of Government when it restricted the access of older New Zealanders to a student loan. So what we have got in front of us today is the second wave attack from National. Really it is not much of an attack because this bill does not achieve what it sets out to achieve. We have already heard that this bill will bring in only another $14 million of revenue by bringing in these provisions around the repayment holiday. 
In terms of the second wave attack it builds up a narrative about National and its commitment to student loans. It does not believe in them at all. We have already heard from John Key that he thinks it is economic madness to keep interest-free student loans— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Order! Title and commencement.  
KRIS FAAFOI 
: OK. We have already heard my suggestion that the bill should be called the “Student Loan Scheme (Second Wave Attack by a National Government) Amendment Bill”. Why do we think it should be called that? Because of the lack of commitment by National to the student loan scheme. We have already heard from the Prime Minister a rather large missile thrown in terms of the second wave attack that I am talking about around his commitment to the student loan scheme. He says it is economic madness to continue the interest-free part of the student loan scheme. In fact he says that if it was not for the politics of it he would not keep it. In terms of calling this bill the second wave attack bill we really do think that National is struggling to continue its commitment to what Labour brought in in 2005 to ensure that there were no barriers to New Zealanders entering tertiary education. We believe that if National actually brought in the bill it wanted to it would be the “Student Loan Scheme (Interest-free Loan Aspect Repeal) Bill” because we do not believe that the National Party is committed to interest-free student loans at all. 
In terms of the second wave attack that I have talked about around the title of the bill we have already heard about the lack of extra revenue that it brings in— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: If the member is not going to talk about the title and commencement I will terminate his speech.  
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Thank you very much Mr Chair for that clarification. In terms of the title I think this bill should be called the “Student Loan Scheme (Second Wave Attack by National) Amendment Bill”. We have already seen— 
Simon Bridges 
: I want to help you get to 5 minutes. Give us some other titles.  
KRIS FAAFOI 
: Sorry a slight interruption. Well maybe we should call it the “Student Loan Scheme (Simon Bridges is Getting His Student Loan Interest-free) Bill”. Maybe we should call it that. But the one that I wanted to bring to the Committee today was the “Student Loan (National’s Second Wave Attack on Student Loans) Amendment Bill. [ 
Interruption 
] It is a good name—thank you very much Ruth Dyson and welcome to the Chamber. We do not believe there is a commitment from National to making sure that the student loan scheme stays interest-free. We do not believe that. We believe that it has launched the second wave attack because of what it did in the first wave by reducing the access— 
The CHAIRPERSON (Eric Roy) 
: Right the speech is terminated.