Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Robertson Grant: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Sitting date: 18 July 2012. Volume:681;Page:3621. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
5. 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Deputy Leader—Labour) 
 to the  
Minister of Finance 
: Did he or any of his staff ask the Treasury to model the impact of adding interest on student loans as part of Budget 2012 preparations? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH (Minister of Finance) 
: 
 As far as I can recall no. As we made clear in the Budget the Government’s policy is to keep student loans interest-free. 
Grant Robertson 
: Why then did Treasury develop the aide-mémoire dated 18 January “Savings Associated with Adding 2% Interest to Student Loans” given the Government’s clear indication it was not going to reintroduce student loans? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I think Treasury has produced a similar aide-mémoire every Budget because every Budget round starts with Treasury saying that we should save several billions more than the Government plans to save. The list of savings becomes somewhat familiar from year to year. 
Grant Robertson 
: Why if he did not ask Treasury to undertake the work on adding interest to student loans did Treasury say in the aide-mémoire that it does not have the data or the experience in modelling student loans to give anything more than preliminary information? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: I suppose Treasury said that because it was true. 
Rt Hon John Key 
: Is it true that the recommendations for savings that Treasury brought to the Minister were all policies that had been implemented by the Labour Government and does that not speak volumes about what Treasury thinks of Labour’s economic management? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Well Treasury maybe has a nuanced view of Labour’s economic management but the public have a very clear view of it which is that it is reckless and they do not want a bar of it. 
Grant Robertson 
: Does he still agree with the Prime Minister’s view that interest-free student loans are economic vandalism and that he will fight them with every bone in his body? [ 
Interruption 
]  
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: The Government’s policy has been quite clear— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I apologise to the member. It has I think long been out of order to refer to any member especially the Prime Minister as being a jellyfish. That is just not on and the member should be required to withdraw. 
Mr SPEAKER 
: Order! And it is just not on to make points of order like that either. The Speaker will be the judge of such matters. 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Through the recession the Government has continued to support New Zealand households through maintaining interest-free student loans Working for Families and significant growth in early childhood subsidies. Because of the Prime Minister’s view that in times of uncertainty New Zealand households need security we have kept those policies in place. 
Grant Robertson 
: Can he guarantee that while he is the Minister of Finance interest will not be reintroduced on student loans? 
Hon BILL ENGLISH 
: Yes and I can guarantee that that member in his capacity as tertiary spokesman will not raise one single significant issue related to the portfolio either.