Flavell Te Ururoa: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Flavell Te Ururoa: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:675;Page:21380] 
TE URUROA FLAVELL (Maori Party—Waiariki) 
: 
 Tena koe Mr Deputy Speaker. Kia ora tatou katoa. If I can cut to the chase on this Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill the purpose as others have said is to make the retrieving of student loan repayments from overseas-based students easier. In that respect I suppose we might say that it is not so much about the cost of education but about the administration of loan repayments. 
The Minister of Revenue puts a reasonable case I think that overseas-based borrowers are not paying their share of the student loan bill. This is an issue because the cost burden naturally falls on the Government and overseas-based loanholders are not contributing to the economy or to the development of the country because they are not here. As I understand it according to the Minister the least they can do is pay back the money they owe for the education the country afforded them through an interest loan scheme and we as a party have some sympathy with those general views. 
The Maori Party policy around student loans is to reduce the cost burden to students. This bill obviously does not increase the cost burden in any way; it simply makes the repayment of these loans easier to enforce at least from the Government’s end. But it does raise I think an interesting age-old issue for debate: what should be free and what should we expect students to pay for. The questions could be whether the State should pay for basic degree courses and then if students want to take their education further whether they should pay for those extras. I ask these questions because education and jobs are not about individual gain and benefit. They actually benefit the whanau the hapu the iwi the community and the nation and those extras also benefit all of us. 
The Maori Party believes that education and job security are about the future of the nation so the nation should be responsible for educating all of its citizens to the extent necessary to ensure its citizens have secure futures. Those citizens should then be responsible for making that same opportunity available to those coming after them. The costs of education should be met by all of us through the State. But it is about the application of kaupapa tuku iho about rangatiratanga whanaungatanga and manaakitanga and the restoration of mana through utu and muru. 
If I were to look for a relevant example I would want to turn back the pages of history to an organisation many may not have heard of namely the Maori Education Trust Board. This trust was established many years ago—and I think it is still available at present. In the case of anybody who is applying for Maori Education Trust Board money those who apply for assistance are interviewed firstly and are expected to give back to the whanau to the iwi to the hapu and to the marae in return for the contribution made to their education. So it is our contention that we should expect the same from those who seek taxpayer money—that they have to give back to the taxpayer. Whether they use taxpayer money through free education or through student loans they should reciprocate in some tangible way so we should not make repayment an insurmountable hurdle. 
An interesting point that came up in our discussion around this bill was the possibility of making repayment not necessarily in money; it could be in kind which is probably an interesting concept for many. We thought of possibly saying to loanholders that if they were going to pay back the loan how about donating back in time to voluntary organisations helping out at schools or helping out at hospitals here or overseas. We might have to be creative in providing students with opportunities for using what they have learnt for the betterment of the community. I like to think it is an innovative idea that may well be worth pursuing. 
These are perhaps ideals but in the meantime we are of course aware that the total student loan book held by the Inland Revenue Department was around $9.1 billion last year. That is a lot of money. During our discussions with relevant parties about this particular bill we got some notes from one particular Maori student who has been in the leadership of a students association about the changes and what might be expected from them. The view of this particular person was that it is pretty difficult to argue against reducing the repayment holiday because the reality is that if a student is spending more than a year away from home then it is pretty clear they are on holiday. That is what he said. Furthermore people who have spent 3 years out of the country are likely to stay overseas. According to this particular student leader the Government may as well get on with recouping the student loan debt sooner rather than later. 
It would be fair to say however that not all students share this particular view. Jacqualene Poutu tumuaki of Te Mana Akonga the Maori students association could not support anything in the bill. Her question about the repayment holiday was: “Why are we treating adults like teenagers?”. For younger students she could see some rationale for it but not for grown adults. In her view she believed that the bill was an attempt to force students to stay in New Zealand but the reality is that the salary ranges in New Zealand are not enough to enable students to repay their loan at a reasonable pace. I wanted to place those questions on the record and to put the views out there really to get a response as to whether age matters. Should it be different for younger or older students and should we be placing more focus on incentives to stay in New Zealand rather than accepting the inevitable drift offshore? 
There are many issues we could be raising about student loans and in particular the relationship to the barriers faced by Maori students and how they participate in the tertiary education sector. The disproportionately high uptake of the student loan scheme by Maori students is indicative of the fact that many Maori students need financial support in order to be educated at tertiary level. I do not think there is too much doubt about that. For many Maori students the student loan scheme provides the financial backing that is necessary for them to participate in tertiary education. Although the cost is still a major barrier Maori have seen the student loan scheme as an opportunity for them to gain qualifications that they otherwise could not afford to even contemplate. I think we should support that. 
I know of course that this bill is singularly focused on student loan repayments from overseas-based students and it is not as such an opportunity to talk about the adequacy or more to the point the inadequacy of financial support available to students. But they are critical issues for the future of the nation and the House can rest assured that even if this debate does not provide the chance to debate the range of issues that we in the Maori Party at least would like to debate there is another chance coming up in another few weeks or so. It is called the election and we are looking forward to that. Kia ora tatou.