Street Maryan: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Street Maryan: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:9409] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I will speak to clauses 1 and 2 in particular. There are things I want to say about the fact that the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill is being progressed under urgency. I do not lay the blame for that at the door of the Minister in charge of the bill the Hon Peter Dunne. It is clear in clause 2 that the commencement date of some clauses is 1 April 2010 so it is important that the legislation is passed before that date. 
The House is sitting under urgency on Tuesday 23 February although it is actually 25 February outside this Chamber. Under urgency of course time stops on the day that urgency is accorded. The point about urgency is that it should be used sparingly for matters that really require it and for matters that are in fact urgent. There is time between now and 1 April to address this issue and to see this bill through to its conclusion but no the Government has chosen to put it through in urgency. This bill was presented to the House for the first time in August last year and the second time was in November last year. Now we are in the Committee stage of the bill at the end of February—under urgency. It is completely plain to everybody that it has simply been a subterfuge for the Government to excuse itself from at least one question time this week. So urgency was not essential and it has been applied. 
This is one of the few bills that has in clause 2 a reference to a date that I perfectly understand as being an essential date for the application particularly of taxation legislation—1 April 2010. But it could have been managed differently. That is not the fault of the Minister in charge of the bill but it is directly the fault of the Leader of the House who determines the agenda of the House at any one time. This is a sign again of a deal of incompetence that we have seen coming from the Government in even managing a simple bill which the Minister introduced to the House in perfectly good time. It was properly considered by the Education and Science Committee and was reported back in November of last year. Since then the Leader of the House has been unable to bring it through in a reasonable and measured way in time for it to be implemented by 1 April. This is a notice to all Ministers in Cabinet that they need to take the Leader of the House aside and say that they will not be made fools of in this way. They need to weigh up whether being protected from question time is worth being made fools of in terms of parliamentary procedure. Clause 2 the commencement clause is apposite and it is entirely reasonable to make some comment upon the progress and process surrounding this bill in this way. 
I want to talk about the title of the bill. When it is enacted it will be the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act 2009. It should perhaps be named the “Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions For Now) Amendment Act 2009.” It is not entirely clear whether this legislation will survive subsequent legislation that the Government may have in mind to narrow restrict shut down and make less accessible student loans and allowances. That is what we heard signalled by the Prime Minister in his Prime Minister’s statement at the beginning of this parliamentary year. It is what we have had underscored since then by the new Minister for Tertiary Education the Hon Steven Joyce. Steven Joyce is a man who does what he says he will do and he is a man who clearly has plans for his portfolios. 
Hon David Cunliffe 
: Except for telecommunications where he has no plans. 
Hon MARYAN STREET 
: With the now glaring exception my colleague reminds us of telecommunications and the roll-out of broadband. However let us assume that the Minister does have a plan for student loans and let us hope that this bill does not run foul of that. Let us hope that what endures after the Minister Steven Joyce has finished with student loans and allowances is access to those loans and allowances still extended to Tokelau still extended to the Cook Islands still extended to citizens of Niue and still extended to those who might one day live on the Ross Dependency—where in the meantime the penguins currently inhabit that part of the realm of New Zealand. Although it says it is a Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Act I would suggest it is in fact an Act for now only.