Harawira Hone: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
Harawira Hone: Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill — In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:660;Page:9425] 
HONE HARAWIRA (Maori Party—Te Tai Tokerau) 
: 
 Kia ora Mr Deputy Speaker. The American poet Robert Frost once said about the privilege of a higher education that education that does not change life much it just lifts trouble to a higher plain of regard. That is a cynical view perhaps but it is one that is no doubt shared by heaps of tertiary students here in Aotearoa. Although people prattle on about broadening horizons and the intellectual challenges of undergraduate and postgraduate education the fact is that the issues that really matter for students are simple ones: access and affordability. Can they get in and can they afford to stay there? The Maori Party believes that a good tertiary education is an investment in our country’s future that it should be freely available to all and that students should get an allowance that is set at the same level as the unemployment benefit. We are a long way away from that point at the moment. 
The Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill raises the issue of eligibility. It allows students who live mainly in their homelands of Niue the Cooks and Tokelau to get interest-free student loans while they are here as a way of encouraging them to go back and help development in their homelands after they get their degrees. That is a notion that fits well with our kaupapa of supporting our whanaunga right across the Pacific to feel free to come here to gain the skills they require to help build their nations. Secondly the bill enables students who are enrolled with a New Zealand institution and who are on approved overseas study to also access interest-free loans. That is welcomed by the New Zealand Vice-Chancellors Committee because it recognises the internationalisation of tertiary education and reflects the increasingly international nature of a great deal of university research. Both areas of course will increase the number of students who can get interest-free loans which is a good thing in itself. Given the importance of tertiary education to our economy that will no doubt receive support from right across the House. 
Another reason the Maori Party supports this bill is that Te Mana Akonga itself welcomes the commitment to look at increasing the income threshold for those getting a student loan as well as the decision to shift the interest-rate mechanism from regulations to the Act making it more transparent to understand and easier to monitor. The Maori Party still raises its concerns about the philosophy of user-pays continuing to dominate our thinking about tertiary education when we should be more focused on investing and keeping our students here. We are concerned about the deplorable state of secondary education which sees too many Maori students still leaving school without even the necessary qualifications for tertiary education and about the cuts in funding for adult education and second-chance learning which makes those inequalities even greater. But in the interests of opening up the tertiary sector to a greater number of students we will be supporting this bill. Kia ora.