Goodhew Jo: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Goodhew Jo: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9367] 
JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata) 
: 
 I rise to speak on the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill and I note that this opportunity has been used for political statements so I intend to make a couple of my own. 
The first thing I want to say having been on the Education and Science Committee that examined this bill is that I am left with no illusions: the student loan scheme is extremely important to New Zealand and it is important that it is working appropriately and managed in an efficient and consistent manner. That is what this bill is all about. It is not about revisiting whether we should have student loans. It is not about trying to scare the horses which we have been listening to members from Opposition benches doing. This bill is about making sure that the student loan scheme works in an efficient and consistent manner. 
At the same time I take this opportunity to say that we need to send the right messages to our students. We need them to understand that the student loan scheme is important to them but also to New Zealand and that its value of $10.3 billion represents a significant asset to the Crown. We need them to be under no illusion that we see them also—the students of New Zealand—as a very very valuable asset and that is why they have the opportunity to take student loans. I am right in the midst of this at the moment with three daughters at university the last of whom headed off to university just a couple of days ago. One delivers one’s children to university and hopes like hang that they use that opportunity and understand the responsibility that they have to make wise decisions for their future. 
Of course the students who are going to university will be making decisions about whether they take out a student loan and whether they have a holiday job and about their future and what courses they will take. Some of them will make the wrong decisions and will revisit those decisions. But they will have in place a student loan scheme that National is committed to having in place and a student loan scheme that is balanced but at the same time puts in place incentives for those young people to pay their loan more quickly. 
One in four New Zealand graduates heads off overseas and that is really regrettable because we want those young people to stay here in this country. It is not just the correct settings on the student loan scheme that will enable that; we have to put a whole lot of settings in place. I note that yesterday there was an announcement by the Government to extend voluntary bonding to my own district health board of South Canterbury. I understand that that is yet another way that we can keep students and medical graduates in New Zealand by putting in place the right incentives. That is exactly what this National Government is doing—looking at all incentives to keep those valuable young people here. Who wants to think of their children being in another country—having a good job perhaps—and having to go and visit them and their grandchildren? This is something that is certainly coming home to roost to me. I really hope that our daughters will find good jobs in New Zealand. 
More than half a million New Zealanders have a student loan. Many have made long-term financial decisions on the basis of the current interest-free student loan policy and we want to assure them that they can plan with certainty. National however was concerned that under Labour there was no incentive for students to repay their loans earlier. That seemed pretty crazy to us. That meant that loanholders were likely to have their debt for longer of course which has implications for other areas of their lives—as well as implications for the Crown—such as when they are buying a house or starting a family. 
National has fulfilled its commitment to keep interest-free student loans for tertiary students. Back in September 2009 we passed legislation that provided for a 10 percent bonus for both New Zealand borrowers and overseas-based borrowers who make voluntary repayments on their student loans of $500 or more in a tax year which gives those students the opportunity to reap the rewards of saving and paying off their student loans earlier. 
This bill introduces mainly technical changes—and I will probably go into more detail about those changes in the Committee stage or third reading. It extends the grace period removes the hardship criteria and allows students who return to New Zealand 6 months of interest-free loan to fulfil our commitment to a balanced scheme that takes into account these more difficult economic times. I make no apology for making my share of political statements in my speech this morning. However we really need to get back to the reason for this bill. It is about managing the student loan Crown asset which is what it is in an efficient and consistent manner and I commend the bill to the House.