Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill

Part 2 of the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill is technical in nature. The bill itself is technical in nature, but Part 2 simply draws other legislation into alignment through a series of consequential amendments. The consequential amendments or the revocation of certain parts of legislation are now referred to in Part 2 in order to make the whole set internally consistent. There are amendments to the Tax Administration Act, there are consequential revocations of enactments such as the Student Loan Scheme (Income Amount for Full Interest Write-off) Regulations 2005, and parts also from 2006 and 2009 are being revoked.

The need to keep the legislation consistent is important. It is imperative but it also raises for me the same question that I have referred to previously, and that is the extent to which the consistency reflected in Part 2 is the consistency reflected in the Government’s approach to tertiary education. Previously when I spoke about this it was clear from some of the interjections opposite that Government members thought that this was simply Labour saying again: “Spend, spend, spend and don’t make any cuts anywhere.”

Government appropriations have always and ever been about the ordering of priorities. This party is saying that in order to be not only consistent but also progressive about tertiary education opportunities and the benefits that accrue to the country from giving more people access to tertiary education, those opportunities should not be lost sight of and should be made consistent across Government policy.

The consistencies that are reflected by Part 2 come into question when the whole approach to tertiary education policy is looked at. We are not any longer in the days that we were in when I first went to Victoria University, some considerable time ago. I remember queuing to pay 10 percent of the course fees in the student union building at Victoria University. We have long since moved on from those days. I wish that our newest member of this House still had such a regime available to him, but that is no longer the case. Now it takes active investment on the part of the Government to ensure that tertiary education is available to all. My father gave me $100 and my mother bought me a coat to cope with the Wellington winter, and on the strength of those gifts and a bursary from high school, I went to Victoria University. I was able, on the strength of the facilities available at that time, to give my father back the $100 at the end of my first year, with some careful stewardship, I have to say, of the money that I did get. I did not emerge with a student loan.

Times have changed, without a doubt, and I wish that things were easier for students now, but they are not. That is why it is incumbent upon the Government to actively invest in tertiary education opportunities. The consistency of approach to tertiary education should mirror the consistency that the Minister has achieved in Part 2. Thank you.

This Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill is relatively uncontroversial. I was lucky to be a member of the Education and Science Committee that was dealing with it at the time, and I am pleased to be able to speak to Part 2. It is fair to say that, relatively speaking, Part 2 is the smaller part of this bill, but it includes consequential amendments and areas that people need to talk about. I acknowledge that although we did not always agree with the policy, and although some of the options that were put up were not picked up by the Government, the officials did a good job.

Some regulations are being revoked as part of this legislation. I say to the Minister in the chair, the Minister of Revenue, that it is good to use primary legislation to revoke regulations, because it means that the provision is on the face of the legislation, rather than people having to dive away to other areas to work their way through the particular issues. Frankly, it is a bit sad that we need legislation for some of these things—such as clause 29, “Officers to maintain secrecy”—but we do. However, the change there is a very small consequential amendment, which omits “, (2AA),” from section 81(4)(g) of the Tax Administration Act. That is an effect of something else earlier on being revoked. It is fair to say that this legislation is in the tidy-up category of legislation.

I have some problems with my colleagues from the Green Party over this legislation. Even though we all have the policy intention of heading towards free tertiary education, the idea that those members would vote against consequential amendments in a relatively minor bill because they are opposed to people at university being charged fees I think goes beyond a stand on principle to a stance that is pretty hard to explain. I was slightly surprised at that.

💬 Hon Maryan Street: What sort of student were you?

I was a student in the era slightly before that of my colleague Maryan Street, I think—when I look at her—but I was at the same institution. I was of the group that did not do a seventh form year—or 6A, I think they called it. I went to university at that stage.

💬 Hon Maryan Street: You’re a child prodigy!

Well, I was 16½; I was old enough. But as a result of my slightly better than mediocre work in my first year, I ended up getting a bursary in my second year. That was the way that it worked. I cannot remember the bursary being an enormous amount of money, but the fees—

💬 Hon Maryan Street: A late developer.

Well, I was an early developer, actually. I ended up a year’s extra study ahead of my colleagues who had stayed at school, we ended up with about the same bursary, and I had had a much better time than they had had over that period. But how much of that time was at the—

💬 Hon Maryan Street: Did you join the students association?

I think it was automatic at that stage. But I did “cafe honours”, and it was good. Bob Moodie used to be there in his kaftan. Jim Baxter would be reciting poetry. I tell you what, Jim Baxter’s poetry was nowhere near as interesting as this bill; there was some really interesting poetry, but none of it came close to Part 2 of the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill. He never came close. But I must say it was a particularly interesting time.

I was really enjoying Trevor Mallard’s contribution to the debate and I hoped that he would seek a second call, but he did not. Part 2 of the Student Loan Scheme (Exemptions and Miscellaneous Provisions) Amendment Bill is basically about consistency. There is really not very much to discuss with regard to what is in this part, so I will go back to some of the other things that we have discussed.

A few members have discussed the fact that they accessed student loans, and what that meant for them. We are seeing that student loans will perhaps be in jeopardy moving forward, with some of the public comments that have been made by members opposite, including the Prime Minister and also, unfortunately, the Minister for Tertiary Education. The newest member of Parliament, Gareth Hughes, pointed out the fact that he is another former student who is paying back his student loan. As I said earlier, I am nearly there. After 9 years of trying to pay back a student loan—not after 9 years of a great Labour Government—I have nearly finished paying it off.

One thing that has come up publicly again is the issue of students who do not necessarily finish their degrees, diplomas, or study on time, and the fact that this Government may be looking to making it difficult for them to access student loans for the full extent of their study. I point out something that I pointed out earlier, which is that unfortunately in this country Māori and Pacific people still take longer to complete their tertiary qualifications in terms of degrees and diplomas. That is not because of lesser intelligence—

💬 Charles Chauvel: Or greater beauty.

—and not because of greater beauty, as Charles Chauvel has pointed out, but because many Māori and Pacific students are still the first in their family to go to university or to do higher-level tertiary study, and it is a very, very strange experience for them. Many of our people are not accustomed to it, especially when other family members have not done it before, and that can result in a few failures in the first year or the second year.

Debate interrupted.

Sitting suspended from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m.