Robertson Grant: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Robertson Grant: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9365] 
GRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central) 
: 
 I thank Louise Upston the previous speaker from National for her reminders on various matters during her speech. Members on this side of the House however were a bit disappointed that Maurice Williamson did not take that call because earlier in the debate we heard the great quote—probably the quote of the year actually—from Mr Williamson: “Slash and burn never hurt anyone.” 
Chris Hipkins 
: A bit of slash and burn. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: “A bit of slash and burn never hurt anyone.” If only Mr Williamson had taken a call then we could have heard a little bit more about what he meant when he said that a little bit of slash and burn never hurt anyone because that is really National’s agenda when it comes to tertiary education. I have respect for Mr Williamson; he says what he thinks. He says what the National Government really thinks—that a little bit of slash and burn never hurt anyone. Well we have certainly seen a little bit of slash and burn in the tertiary education sector and I think we will see a little more to come. 
The Labour Party supports this Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill because it is largely a technical bill although I admit as the previous speaker said that there are some important elements in the bill in terms of the exemptions particularly relating to the idea of people who are studying overseas on exchanges or scholarships. I think this is a good thing. It will allow people to continue their education in a way that New Zealand will benefit from. We will come back in the Committee stage to some of the technical amendments particularly the one relating to the changes to penalties. I understand the Green Party’s position on it and I would like to raise a few questions with the Minister of Revenue about how information will be communicated to borrowers so that they know about the increased penalty rates. That has been one of the major issues for people when they have been going overseas—not always understanding what requirements they have as borrowers. I think it will be very important if we are to take a more punitive stance that our borrowers know what they will be doing. 
Also with regard to the hardship grounds I think that potentially quite a good thing is being done there but we need to understand fully how that will work as well. Another one of the technical amendments is very technical. It is shifting the setting of the interest rate from regulations to the Student Loan Scheme Act. This seems like a minor amendment but there are some questions to be raised about that particularly in light of what happened this year with the setting of the interest rate. We just want to make sure that we are clear on how that will work. These technical matters tidy up some elements of the Act and the working of the scheme and we are pleased to support that. 
But it is difficult for us to stand here and be completely comfortable when it comes to talking about student loans and this Government because what we have heard in recent weeks with the appointment of Steven Joyce as the Minister for Tertiary Education is an absolute acknowledgment that National has never had a commitment to the interest-free student loan scheme. Steven Joyce said in the  
Press  
last Saturday that it was a “political call” to take on the interest-free student loan scheme. Those of us who were around when Labour brought in the interest-free student loan scheme are not surprised to hear that because at the time it was introduced John Key who was then I think the finance spokesperson for the National Party said that he would oppose interest-free student loans with every bone in his body. He said that with every bone in his body he would oppose them. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Can’t have many. 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: Well there cannot be many bones at all— 
Hon Member 
: Spineless! 
GRANT ROBERTSON 
: —spineless some might say but not many bones at all. He told this very House that he would oppose interest-free student loans with every bone in his body but a political call came along and National adopted it. 
But we know that there is no commitment to the scheme because both Mr Key and Mr Joyce in recent weeks have said that things need to be looked at with regard to the student loan scheme and that there need to be changes. In the Prime Minister’s statement to Parliament Mr Key made it clear that he wanted to tighten up the rules for access to student loans. He talked in particular about people who may not be passing their courses and there was another very worrying phrase about people who were not moving into work quickly enough. We on this side of the House want to know what that means because it sounds like a huge restriction on the ability of people to undertake multiple courses or to perhaps change tack part-way through a course. Not everybody arrives at tertiary study instantly ready and knowing what they want to do for the rest of their lives. We need to invest in education and allow people to develop their skills and any tightening of the student loan scheme any limiting of people’s access to students loans—which is what the Prime Minister was talking about in his statement to Parliament—will be detrimental to New Zealand’s future. The Government really needs to explain where it is heading with student loans. 
Steven Joyce is a man whom I respect. He clearly has a good and quick understanding of how politics works and he has come into Parliament as a senior Minister but he has said some things that I think belie the fact that he understands the student loan scheme properly. He said in the  
Press  
last weekend: “The simple point is if you don’t pay interest on any loan—forget student loans for a second—then there is less incentive to pay it back than if you do pay interest.” The thing that Mr Joyce leaves out is that student loans are automatically deducted from one’s salary once one earns more than $19000 a year at 10 percent. That is the incentive. The law gives the incentive. What appears to be happening is that Steven Joyce in taking on this role is looking to wind back elements of the interest-free student loan scheme before I predict in the future National attempts to wind back the whole scheme. We have heard phrases coming out of the National Government about the generosity of taxpayers. That phrase was used by John Key in his speech to Parliament. Louise Upston used it before. This is the beginning of the Government trying to say that students do not deserve interest-free student loans. 
We know and it is actually implicit in this bill that the purpose of interest-free student loans in large part is to encourage people to stay in New Zealand. That is completely understood by this bill because we are extending the loans to people from other territories from Niue the Cook Islands and Tokelau and to anyone in the Ross Dependency as well. We are acknowledging that interest-free student loans are good in terms of the policy objective of keeping people in New Zealand and encouraging them to stay and contribute to our economy. National rejected that as a reason for interest-free student loans when they were first brought in but this bill recognises that that is an important part of developing our economy and making sure that people stay here and contribute to our economy. That will be undermined if the National Government goes ahead with starting to restrict access to student loans and winding back the interest-free policy which those members have never been committed to. Supporting it was a political call. It was a policy they would oppose with every bone in their body but they were forced into supporting it for electoral reasons. They look to slowly but surely undermine that policy and we on this side of the House will not stand for that. 
We have had some comments from members on the other side of the House about the importance of education and about National’s understanding of the importance of investing in tertiary education. But if we look at National’s record on tertiary education we see that there is no sign of that. Mr Nash has already spoken about the removal of the training incentive allowance. The last Budget took $60 million out of our polytechs at the very time that they were necessary and important in terms of giving people skills during the recession. If we look across the Tasman something that I know that National is very fond of doing we will see that Australia in response to the recession invested in skills and technology; it made sure that people had free access to the equivalent of polytechnics if they lost their jobs. That was a bold move to ensure that people kept up their skills in a recession and were able to contribute to the economy when the recession lessened. 
What we have from National is no investment in the tertiary sector. Where is the plan to say that because tertiary institutions are bursting at the seams which they are we will lift the cap because circumstances dictate that we want people to be training so that they can contribute to the economy? We have seen nothing of that; we have simply seen a consistent undermining of the tertiary sector the taking away of community roles on polytechnic councils and a lack of investment in the future of New Zealand. Although we support this bill because it includes some important technical changes we are very wary of the direction of the National Government on student loans and very wary that it will undermine interest-free student loans a policy that is important to our economy and important to our future.