Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — In Committee 
Woolerton R Doug: Taxation (Annual Rates and Urgent Measures) Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:628;Page:770] 
R DOUG WOOLERTON (NZ First) 
: 
 On the previous part the member Katherine Rich was accusing me of going back 30 years into the dim past of the National Party and all the rest of it—years that National Party members would sooner forget I might tell people—but I am going to do it again. I remember saying to one Dr the Hon Lockwood Smith when he brought in the student loan scheme that it would be bad for the young people of New Zealand because it would get them into the business of borrowing money for education and we believed and all good sensible people of New Zealand believed they should work for it and the parts they did not work for should be put up by the State. Some people still hold to that policy. New Zealand First believes there should be universality when it comes to living allowances. We have moved as far as that. But we accept that the market should reign when it comes to what courses students take and we accept that that will largely be judged by the person on the fact that they will earn more income when they leave university. 
However we had a situation at the last election and I agree with Dr Cullen: I believe that this policy won the Labour Party the election. But National members do not say too much about the fact that the only thing that happened was they were trumped on this. They said: “We are going to lower the tax on student loans and we are wonderful people.” They said nothing about how they could afford it on top of tax cuts. They said nothing about any of that. On top of tax cuts for everybody they promised a reduction in the interest on student loans. 
Hon Damien O'Connor 
: They weren’t going to do it. 
R DOUG WOOLERTON 
: Mr Damien O’Connor is close to the action and he tells me they were not going to do it. I suspect he is probably right. I was taking the National Party at face value which I probably should learn not to do. I am naive and innocent. Even as I approach my more interesting years I am still naive. 
The Labour Party came in and said there would be no interest on student loans and it won the election. Now we have a situation where National is saying that the world is going to be turned on its head because students are actually going to do what the Government said they should do and borrow for their education. Duh! I think Labour probably understands that. 
But it is a matter of wanting better education for our young people—and we all in this Chamber want that I hope. We want a better-educated workforce and we want New Zealand to be the most enlightened best-educated country in the world. New Zealand First is supporting the bill which incorporates this change to the regime of taxing students because we uphold the principle of wanting better education for everybody in this country. We would do it in a slightly different way. We would do it in a different way from what the National Party proposed but we would not be dogs in the manger and say that it should not happen because we want our young people to succeed. We want a country where we can hold our heads up high and say: “We are the best in the world.” I remember my colleague Peter Brown who is sitting beside me at this point saying to me that he came to this country in the 1960s because he believed it to be an enlightened country. He believed that his children could be brought up better here have a better future and all of those things. He supports this bill because it is fulfilling those things that he came to this country for and New Zealand First is proud to support him in that.