Dunne Peter: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Dunne Peter: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading 
[Sitting date: 28 March 2013. Volume:688;Page:9071. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Revenue) 
: 
 I move  
That the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a third time 
. This bill continues the Government’s commitment to the proper governance of this major Crown asset by introducing new measures to bring greater fairness and transparency to the student loan scheme. The principal measure in the bill proposes to broaden the definition of income used to determine the loan amount a New Zealand based borrower has to repay each year. That will bring the definition of income used for student loans broadly into line with the definition used for the purposes of Working for Families tax credits and other social policy contracts. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (H V Ross Robertson) 
: Order! Would members leaving the Chamber show some courtesy to the member who is trying to address the business of the House. It is good conduct and it is being considerate of others. Thank you. 
Hon PETER DUNNE 
: As I was saying the broadening of the definition of income to match the definitions we use for Working for Families tax credits and other social policy programmes will ensure that the repayment obligations of New Zealand based borrowers are determined on an equitable basis irrespective of the type of income that they earn and will hopefully put an end to the mounting criticism over the years about people being able to shelter or hide income to avoid student loan repayment obligations. 
A second important measure contained in the bill proposes an information match with the New Zealand Customs Service. The point of that is to allow the Customs Service to identify borrowers at the border when they are in serious default on their loan repayments and to then be able to forward the contact details for those borrowers to the Inland Revenue Department. In turn the Inland Revenue Department will be able to make contact with those borrowers to discuss their situation. Again that is part of making sure we have a better approach to the handling of overseas-based borrowers—being able to track them down identify them and make sure that like their domestically based counterparts they meet their repayment obligations. It is part of a theme that lies behind all of the changes we have made to the student loan scheme which is that the requirement to repay a student loan is an important part of the taking out of the loan in the first place. There is an active responsibility involved which too often gets overlooked and particularly so in the case of some of the overseas-based borrowers. 
The remaining measures of the bill are largely administrative. They are designed to improve the operation of the existing legislation. They include clarifying the repayment obligation rules for new borrowers in their first year of borrowing confirming the current late-payment interest rules and repealing changes from earlier legislation that are now no longer needed. When the package is taken together the changes in the bill will bring greater value more efficiency and better fairness to the existing student loan system. 
I want to record my thanks to those who have contributed to the successful passage of the bill so far: firstly to the policy officials and the drafters who have worked on the detail of the bill; second to those who made submissions to the Finance and Expenditure Committee; and third to the Finance and Expenditure Committee for its recommendations to further refine the bill’s form and function. I also acknowledge that this bill has widespread support in the House and I thank members for that. With that I now commend the bill to the House for its third reading.