King Colin: Student Loan Scheme (Repayment Bonus) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
King Colin: Student Loan Scheme (Repayment Bonus) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
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COLIN KING (National—Kaikoura) 
: 
 It is with some disappointment that we had to tolerate the presentation from the previous speaker Stuart Nash. When he first came to the House he could not control himself. He leapt to his feet and told us that he was the most qualified person in the House to speak on anything to do with education because he was engaged in a masters’ degree in education. That must count for something. 
Stuart Nash 
: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. I did not actually inform the House of that. I said that I had been— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: No that is not a point of order. That is a debating point. 
COLIN KING 
: My apologies to the member over the other side if I did misrepresent what he was qualified to do. 
However I want to say how passionate we are on this side of the House to ensure that we streamline the process for people to pay off their student loans. The purists might talk about the best economic way forward but I remind those members on the other side of the House that 28.3 percent of people are still paying significant amounts off their student loans. The members on the other side can call them whatever they wish to. From that point of view it may be a reduced field of support but it is wonderful to see that opportunities are being offered by this side of the House. When we start talking about the Student Loan Scheme (Repayment Bonus) Amendment Bill it is quite important that the select committee address the issue. It is effectively around the Student Loan Scheme Act and a new section 45. Did I hear the Minister correctly that the report back date was July the— 
Hon Peter Dunne 
: 30 July. 
COLIN KING 
: OK so that is what we should be aiming at. When we look at the Government initiatives so far we have talked about improving literacy and numeracy by introducing standards. We have looked at the way we can improve the teacher registration the vetting of adults in unsupervised situations the introduction of trade academies and now we are looking at improving and creating incentives for people to repay their student loans. 
When we stop and think about the student loan we see that it was introduced in 1992 it was introduced by the National Government and at that particular time we had one of the very worst levels of engagement around tertiary education. We now find ourselves at the other end of the scale whereby we have one of the better levels. I took the opportunity to look up the University Students Association’s website. It is with huge concern to see those numbers rolling over and a total student loan debt of close to $10 billion. 
Quite often we hear from the other side of the House from members who have been here for many years—say 15 to 20 years—that they got a free tertiary education courtesy of the taxpayer. The point I would like to make is that what we have done around the student loan scheme is broaden out an enormous opportunity to people who otherwise would be shut out of tertiary education. That is something I have had to change my view on. As I have been a person who has not actually been involved in a student loan and have not undertaken exceptionally high levels of tertiary education—I backed myself and I made my living with my hands—I have had to review my thinking because today is not what it used to be. Today it is very important when our children leave school in year 13 that we have got them up to a threshold where they have high standards of literacy and numeracy so they can make a choice about where their career pathway will take them. 
I want to make the point which is quite relevant to the Student Loan Scheme (Repayment Bonus) Amendment Bill that there is an old argument about public good versus private good. That means if you support the idea that all students should have free education at tertiary institutions— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: Order! 
COLIN KING 
: Sorry my apologies. Whoever supports that idea deems that free education at tertiary institutions is appropriate and that the public good is being served by the taxpayer who therefore should pay the entire amount of tertiary education. If one backs the side of the argument that says tertiary education is solely for private good then really one is saying that people should be able to make a choice around their education in such a way that it aids them to empower themselves to a level whereby they are able to make a commercial decision and be able to repay the student loan. 
Effectively at the moment we are sitting in the middle of this way. We see that there is public good and that there should be private good. I think during the economic times of today with regards to tertiary education student loans and the like we will see far more considered measured managed and focused decisions around careers. From that point of view I believe that we are living in a time that is far more sensible and more balanced. What I saw from my own observation was that young people at school-leaving age maybe 18 years were not too sure of where they wanted to go as far as a career was concerned or what they might want to do after school. So these people defaulted into further training and so on. Quite often it was university because that is where their buddies went. One cannot blame them for that because it was part of the transition process and that is always the hardest part of life. 
If we apply these thoughts to the student loan scheme we see that people have large debt. They have quite a lot of costs. We see that over a period of time virtually 600000 to 700000 people have entered into student loans. A lot of those loans are being paid back. The student loan scheme will not get to the stage where it will actually flatten out and the amount owed start to slowly reduce until about 2014. Interestingly it was early on before the interest-free side came in that the loans were taking up to 9 years to repay. That time has now been reduced to 7 years. We like to think we will see some greater improvement in that. 
It is with some fear and trepidation that members of select committees receive bills that are referred to them. It is very important that we do this work effectively because the Minister will be relying on us to send the bill back to the House for its second reading. He will want to make sure there are no loopholes in it so that it cannot be defrauded. That is why it is very appropriate that payment regimes have to be locked in very seriously so that there is no way such things as money paid to students from StudyLink will qualify for bonuses. Effectively we want to see this worked on to improve those people’s opportunities to clear their debts. When they do so they will be able to take on a loan in a commercial discipline and really contribute to the nation with the quality of their education. 
It is a pleasure to stand and support this bill. I believe that the 28 to 29 percent of people who are conscientiously reducing their student loan debt will be encouraged to take advantage of this measure. We look forward to supporting this bill and returning it to the House for its second reading.