Nats, Dunne make education harder

Trying to get an education? The National Party and their trusty sidekick Peter Dunne are here to make it harder.

Alliance Party media release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Thursday 25 June 2009

The Alliance Party of New Zealand says Revenue Minister Peter Dunne's proposed changes to the student loan repayment scheme by National would be tightening the screws on students even more.

Students who work over the holidays to save for the following year could be forced to make loan repayments.

Alliance Party Tertiary Education Spokesperson Richard Mitchell says students make very little money during the year, and holiday jobs pay for basic living expenses for the following year.

He says comments by Revenue Minister Peter Dunne complaints that managing student loans was "cumbersome" and difficult to maintain for the Government were crass.

"Is he more worried about the education of young New Zealanders carrying billions of debt to fund his personal tax cuts, or is his big worry the paperwork the user pays system has created?"

Mr Mitchell says the simple way to make student loan management easy to maintain would be to abolish student loans, as the Alliance proposed.

"This way we get rid of a whole level of unnecessary bureaucracy and send the message that we want to encourage all young people to get an education, regardless of their background."

Currently people with student loans have to make repayments if they earn over $19,084 a year.

The proposed changes will see the threshold changed to be weekly, fortnightly or monthly, in line with an individual's pay period.

The total yearly threshold will remain unchanged, but students who work full time during the holidays may now find themselves over the $367 weekly threshold and having to make payments while they save for the year ahead.

The Alliance Party supports a fully funded, high quality and free public education system paid for by progressive taxation.

ENDS

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