Goodhew JoHon JO GOODHEW (National—Rangitata): I find myself in the unusual position of largely agreeing with the previous speaker Darroch Ball. Putting that aside National will be opposing this bill. I want to cover off on a few of the really important points we need to consider when we think about this.This bill is seeking to solve a problem but I think this is the wrong solution to that. There are other solutions that they should be looking at. That problem is around homeownership. I personally and the National Government do not believe that student loans are the issue at the heart of this. As the previous speaker said this will simply move the debt around.Keeping in mind what we have in terms of the settings for student loans currently 731000 people have a student loan—731000 New Zealanders have a student loan; that is at 30 June 2016—and 40000 students pay one off every year. So 40000 New Zealanders manage it and get on with their lives. At the same time those 731000 New Zealanders are investing in their future. They are investing in having a higher income a sensible investment and at the same time the taxpayer is investing in them with some 82 percent of the cost of their tertiary education being met by the taxpayers of New Zealand. Remember too that 40 percent of the cost of those loans—the New Zealand taxpayers' investment in these young people or people who have a student loan—is written off. That is quite high but it is a good investment in my view.I have a personal interest in this: my husband and I have three daughters all with student loans. They are paying them off. They have good jobs. They know that they have invested as did we in assisting them a little bit in their future. Their future will mean that they can manage their debt. One day they will have their own homes.Since student loans came into being half a million people have paid them off in full. I say that to keep in context the commentary about those borrowers who end up in bankruptcy. Those very same borrowers—and we are talking about 544 in the year to June 2016 ending in bankruptcy—also have significant other debt. It is not just their student loan.In essence the next thing I want to cover off on is the important part about young people determining how they are going to spend their time in training and whether they will pick up a student loan. When I was overseas last week at the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women I was talking about various tools that New Zealand uses to help young people to choose the right occupation to improve their economic independence.This was a particular opportunity for me to share some really great things that are happening here in New Zealand. One of the things that I shared was the Occupation Outlook app 2017 which is the updated one. Today it has been quite topical talking about midwives. A young person wanting to be a midwife can look at that app and discover that their income is going to be high that fees to train are in the upper quartile of fees that job prospects are projected to increase but that they are still quite good right now.So what I am saying in essence is that when a young person decides that in life they want to have a good job they want to have their own home and they want to have a bright future then they will structure the time they spend and the investment they make in getting extra training taking a student loan on board. But in fact that planning to have a good income will reap the rewards for them. As I have said 40000 New Zealanders pay off their student loan every single year—half a million since student loans were introduced.We must not forget that the New Zealand taxpayer is significantly investing in these young people—largely young people—who are going to university or other tertiary institutions and taking out a student loan. This bill is a solution but not to this particular problem. This bill would simply mean that young people would park their debt in a place and then have to go back to it later. This is not going to solve any of the issues for young people looking to invest in a home and therefore National will not be supporting it.