Goldsmith Paul: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeGoldsmith Paul: Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 13 February 2014. Volume:696;Page:15950. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]PAUL GOLDSMITH (National): It is my pleasure to speak on this bill the Student Loan Scheme Amendment Bill (No 3). It grieves me a little bit to say—following such kind comments from the previous speaker David Clark about the work of collaboration that the Finance and Expenditure Committee did on this bill and the way that we generally work together well in a collegial fashion—that Labour is clearly on the side of the defaulters and on the side of the shirkers when it comes to student loans. Labour is on the side of the people who want to take the money and run. Surely if you look at the figures we have over 100000 overseas-based borrowers in the scheme; a significant number—61000 of them—are not meeting their repayment obligations and the Labour Party seems to think that is no problem. There are 61000 people overseas who have not bothered to start paying any payments back on the student loans. They have left the country taken the money and run and Labour thinks that is no problem. So that is not a serious policy and it is not a serious policy from a party that is not serious about this issue.National is making the student loan scheme sustainable into the future it is reducing the need for more Government borrowing and it is providing students for the jobs of the future. Our interest-free student loan scheme is one of the most generous in the world. We have only to look at the papers that were delivered for the select committee which show that OECD countries on average spend about 20 percent of their public budgets for tertiary education on financial aid for students. New Zealand spends more than double this proportion—43 percent—and is second only to the UK in the support that it gives to students. The quid pro quo for that is that we expect students to actuallypay it back once they have received their student loans. It represents a major financial commitment by the Government and taxpayers to support people in tertiary education.We want to do that because we know that it is important that New Zealand increases its level of skills. We do live in a highly competitive global environment. It is not written in stone that New Zealand will continue to be wealthy in the future. You have only to look at the Programme for International Student Assessment results and the great challenge that has been put forward particularly in our neighbourhood by China and other countries. That offers great opportunities for New Zealand to trade and to do well but it also reminds us that we have to actually keep on working hard and lifting our game here in New Zealand. A good quality tertiary education is part and parcel of that and the student loan scheme supports that. So all of New Zealand has a stake in good tertiary education but loan borrowers need to keep their end of the deal and repay any money promptly that they borrowed particularly when they go overseas. This legislation is part of an ongoing effort over a number of years by the National Government to make sure that people actually start repaying their loans.So as has been indicated the key thing that we are talking about is introducing the ability to retain people at the border—request an arrest warrant for overseas-based borrowers who persistently default. It is a small group of people but it will send a clear and powerful message that those who consistently fail to meet their obligations will be held to account.Grant Robertson: No.PAUL GOLDSMITH: The Opposition members say no. Well what do they suggest? Do you just keep on saying “Well please pay.” and do nothing about it? At some point we have to actually put a line in the sand and say “If you don’t pay you can’t just keep on continuing to have the privileges of a New Zealander going freely in and out of this country if you don’t make even the slightest attempt.” We are not suggesting that you have to pay the whole loan right on the dot at that moment but all you need to do is enter into a conversation with the Inland Revenue Department to start repaying that loan and start making some progress. That is very important.The one change from the Finance and Expenditure Committee that I just wanted to alert Parliament to was that originally the bill set out that the courts could make any other order the courts saw fit in relation to the arrested student loan borrower. The committee thought that that was too wide in scope and that there was a lack of clarity around that. As a result the bill is slightly tighter there and refers to the court within such a period that it specifies being able to ask for further information. So the committee tightened up that little area and I thought that made the bill more powerful. On that basis I am very happy to commend this bill to the House.