SpeechSTUDENT LOAN SCHEME (FIRST HOME REPAYMENT DIVERSION) AMENDMENT BILLFirst ReadingGARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I move That the Student Loan Scheme (First Home Repayment Diversion) Amendment Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Education and Science Committee to consider the bill. A home of your own used to be the Kiwi Dream. For many particularly Generation Rent it is just that—a dream. This bill asks the House a question: should the State as soon as people start working demand that they pay back their student loan as fast as humanly possible with compulsory weekly deductions locking them into rental accommodation or should it give those people the choice to maybe prioritise saving for a first home while working and saving in New Zealand?We are facing a housing crisis in New Zealand. We are seeing prices rising at unsustainable levels. We heard some of the cases when the member Kelvin Davis' bill was being debated previously. People are living in garages and speculators are getting rich flipping off houses. We heard from James Shaw that a house rose 80000 bucks in value in the space of an afternoon. Deposit requirements have risen to over 20 percent and getting a deposit together particularly for young Kiwis is harder than ever before. Once upon a time we had a homeownership culture in New Zealand. Now with homeownership at the lowest rate in 66 years—and in Auckland twice as many people having multiple properties as there are first-home buyers—we have moved from that homeownership culture to a landlord and tenant culture.There are countless couples who have studied at university or polytech and they are just trying to get ahead and do what is right for their country and their economy. These countless couples are sitting around their kitchen tables going over their numbers and they are wondering how on earth they are ever going to get together a 20 percent deposit in this housing market.It is incredibly hard to save for a deposit when 12 percent of your income is taken out in compulsory student loan repayments every week. Currently anyone earning over the ridiculously—and compared with other countries incredibly—low income threshold of $19000 has that 12 percent disappear every week. Then there are still taxes saving for retirement and the rising cost of living to pay for. I know how frustrating and insecure it is when you know that you are paying someone else's mortgage but cannot get into a home of your own.I want to point out that this bill is not a silver bullet to fix the student loan or housing crises but it is a practical measure that we can enact now to help people get into their homes. My bill would allow people with student loans—and there are more than 700000 New Zealanders in this basket—the choice to divert part or all of those 12 percent compulsory deductions into a nominated first home savings account for a period. This would make a huge difference to young people who are struggling to get together a deposit. I will give you just one example. A Bachelor's degree graduate on the median wage in New Zealand could save $18000 after 5 years. Add that to KiwiSaver the HomeStart grants and some private savings and a deposit is actually looking realistic. At the moment that horizon is receding far off into the distance.Practically under this proposal the first home savings account would be administered and held by the IRD using the existing student loan repayment scheme. The IRD would approve the money to be spent on the purchase or building of a first home. If the funds were not spent on a first home they would be transferred back into the student loan account. I have delegated the limits to the Government to decide what they should be—a savings cap or a nominated period of time; for example maybe 5 years. I have given those considerable powers to the Government in the spirit of compromise so that the Government of the day can set those barriers.I want to urge members to just stop and reflect for a second because currently borrowers who travel overseas can access a student loan repayment holiday. Those who stay in New Zealand—who want to work who want to save who maybe want to start a family—they cannot access that. I think it is entirely fair and reasonable that we should give those who want to stay and work and save in New Zealand the opportunity to have a repayment break as well. Currently there are 341500 New Zealanders making those compulsory 12 percent weekly loan repayments and I believe we can help those thousands of young Kiwis into homes. That is going to encourage them to stay in New Zealand which is actually in the long term going to help with the current student loan repayment.The bill basically says in a nutshell that secure housing is important. We need to give people a pathway into their own home and look if it takes a little bit longer to pay off their student loan I think that is reasonable. Trying to make life easier should not however be seen as support for the student loan scheme. Student loans and the outstanding $15 billion in debt are themselves deeply unfair and need to be drastically reformed. I believe that students should not be borrowing to live and we should be returning to fee-free education. There needs to be much much more done to fix the housing crisis—starting with building homes a capital gains tax not on the family house and rental law reform—but in the short term under the current National Government I am proposing this bill as a practical solution to help hundreds of thousands of Kiwis right now.I began this speech saying that I was asking a question: should we demand that loans are paid as fast as possible or should we allow people to save their own income for their own home? The bill also asks this House a broader question: is this House committed to intergenerational equity? For my parents' generation there was guaranteed superannuation at 65 support to get into a house free education and universal student allowances but for my generation superannuation at 65 an affordable education and most of all a home to call your own are considered luxuries. I have got a bit of a personal example. Probably in contrast to the vast majority of members in this House I had to borrow to study I paid interest on my student loan while I was studying I received no State support to help buy a home and I am going to have to retire later than many members.I believe in intergenerational fairness and I hope this bill and the consideration by this House and a select committee can take us a little bit closer to intergenerational fairness. This House can help hundreds of thousands of people who are sitting around those tables looking over their receipts looking over their incomes and seeing their 12 percent taken out compulsorily every single week. They want a little bit of hope. They want to have a bit of that Kiwi Dream which is a home to call their own to raise their family in. I hope that this House can help.