Hipkins Chris: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHipkins Chris: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) — First Reading[Sitting date: 27 August 2013. Volume:693;Page:13031. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka): I think perhaps next time before Maggie Barry decides to give us a great spiel about what happened at a select committee she might want to check whether in fact the select committee meetings had even taken place. This is the first reading of the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) so in order for Maggie Barry to reflect on all of the things that happened at the select committee she might want to check to make sure that the select committee had actually happened. I do not know of any bill that has been in this House for a first reading that has gone to a select committee before it has even been read in the House for a first time. I think that only in the parallel universe that Maggie Barry inhabits—Hon Trevor Mallard: Delirious.CHRIS HIPKINS: —the delirious parallel universe that Maggie Barry inhabits—would a bill go to a select committee before it has had even a first reading in the House.This bill says an awful lot about the National Government which is quite happy to pick on people who find themselves on hard times and who do make some mistakes and who do for whatever reason find themselves in default on their student loans. Yes people who borrow with student loans should pay them back but many times people find themselves in a difficult position because they go overseas or for other reasons.Of course other people find themselves in a difficult position. The owners ofMediaWorks found themselves in a difficult position and Steven Joyce was only too happy to help them out with their loan. There was no problem in helping them out with their loan. But when it comes to a student or a recent graduate who gets into a bit of trouble with their loan Steven Joyce wants to whack handcuffs on them. Why does he not have the same standard for the people who are in receipt of corporate welfare under this Government? It seems that we have one standard for those whom the National Government thinks should receive corporate welfare and another standard for the genuinely needy New Zealanders who through no fault of their own find themselves in need of a little bit of assistance.I am very proud to stand here as a Labour member of Parliament because I think that in the 9 years that Labour was last in Government we did a number of incredibly good things with the student loan scheme that were designed to ensure that no New Zealander was prevented from participating in tertiary education by the cost of it. Yet Steven Joyce has openly said that his intention is the opposite. His intention is to dampen the demand for tertiary education by making it more difficult to get into and by making it more expensive. He has basically said that some people are just too old for tertiary education and that once they get to a certain age they should not be able to access tertiary education any more. That is Steven Joyce’s view. Steven Joyce also does not think that we should offer full levels of student support to people who are doing postgraduate study.Well I have news for Steven Joyce who is also the Minister for Economic Development. If we are genuinely committed to economic development perhaps we might want to focus on supporting the people who are doing advanced qualifications and might actually have some ideas about how we can get the boat to go faster. But no not Steven Joyce. He wants to dampen demand for tertiary education.Of course tertiary education is not just about universities. Student loans are not accessed only by people who go to university. They are accessed by many many people who go into other professions including the trades and Steven Joyce is just as intent to pick on those as he is to pick on university students. We should not ever allow this to be an elitist argument because actually student loans apply to all forms of tertiaryeducation. Steven Joyce should not be pulling up the ladder on those people who want to get ahead. That is exactly what this Government is doing.I can say that the previous Labour Government was working incredibly hard to make sure that tertiary education was more affordable by making sure that fees were frozen by making sure that student loans were interest free and by increasing eligibility for allowances. All of those things are being undone by the Government. Fees are going up again at a phenomenal rate like they used to do. Access to allowances is being cut and we are seeing the Government reintroducing costs on student loans. So although Government members may say they want interest-free student loans they introduce an administration fee here they cut eligibility there and they do all sorts of other things because fundamentally they do not like interest-free student loans.I believed John Key when he said he thought interest-free student loans were communism by stealth or whatever—no that might have been Working for Families. But he was going to fight it with every bone in his body and I tell you what—he has not given up on that. They may say that they are going to keep interest-free student loans but they fundamentally do not believe in it.