Street Maryan: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
Street Maryan: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — Second Reading In Committee 
[Volume:660;Page:9390] 
Hon MARYAN STREET (Labour) 
: 
 I want to make a couple of comments and first of all thank the Minister of Revenue for his comments about spouses of diplomats because that was something that has been discussed. I cannot remember whether we discussed it at the select committee itself or whether just the Labour members have been discussing it amongst ourselves. Certainly the Minister referred to keeping the issue under some sort of review. Amongst the agencies that have some interest here the Inland Revenue Department the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade it would be possible for that to slip through the cracks and I would urge the Minister that it not slip through the cracks. In fact although it is possible under this legislation as it currently stands for a partner or spouse of a diplomat to qualify by virtue of being part of an approved tertiary institution course that is recognised for the purposes of this legislation and in that way he or she could get in it would be useful to clarify that tax status so that we know for sure whether such spouses and partners would be eligible. I think that is also of benefit when one thinks that these are people who work in the service of New Zealand go offshore for a time and inevitably come back and if a partner or spouse can come back better skilled to contribute in his or her own right as well then we should facilitate that. I thank the Minister for that consideration and hope that it does not fall from view. 
The other thing I want to talk about is something I had referred to earlier when I spoke about tertiary institutions turning away students at the moment and I used the example of the Universal College of Learning. In fact it would appear that if the student demand continues as it is tracking at the moment at that college where there have been 500 more students than last year apply for courses which is something in the order of a 19 percent increase on its past roll if that continues then the chief executive officer of the college says they will have to close the doors some time between May and August. That is an issue that needs to be addressed by the Minister for Tertiary Education—admittedly—but again it underscores the point that this legislation is trying to make the student loan scheme accessible to more people at a time when the Government is not entertaining increasing student numbers lifting caps renegotiating them or any other way of investing in the tertiary education system. 
There is one particular exception and it goes to the speech that my colleague Kelvin Davis made earlier. I refer to—and the Chair will be pleased I am not going to seek to table it—an article that was in the Christchurch  
Press  
over the weekend on Saturday 20 February about the launch by Pita Sharples of a new guide for universities to support Maori students to succeed. Every indication we have had from the Prime Minister and the Minister for Tertiary Education to date has been that there will be closer examination of success and whether people will be able to continue to apply for and be eligible for student loans. Kelvin Davies and my colleague Carmel Sepuloni have expressed a concern from their own experience and that of their own whanau and whanaunga for Maori and Pasifika students who come perhaps not from a background in the majority of cases that is accustomed to tertiary education. There is not an embedded understanding within the family of what it takes to support somebody to succeed and therefore additional support from an institution is required.