Hon Bill English
National Party Education Spokesman

28 July 2005

Mallard deceives students over loans

National’s Education spokesman, Bill English, says Labour has deceived many of the 200,000 students who have visited the online loans calculator to calculate their savings under Labour’s interest-free proposal.

Mr English says Labour’s savings estimates for individual loan borrowers are approximately 30% higher than calculations provided by the Inland Revenue Department.

For example, Labour’s calculator estimates that someone with a $15,000 loan and an annual income of $35,000 would save $10,139 in interest. But IRD says only $6,820.74 in interest would be accumulated – a difference of $3,318.26.

“Some students will find that the Labour calculator has overestimated their savings by as much as 50%,” says Mr English.

“As students discover the truth about Labour’s policy, and taxpayers discover they are paying for a 21st century version of Social Credit, Mr Mallard’s scheme will come under serious scrutiny.

“Under normal circumstances, a Minister would run such a significant proposal past the IRD and Treasury, but they knew those organisations would put the kibosh on the policy if they knew about it.

“This kind of sloppiness and misrepresentation puts the integrity of Labour’s entire policy in doubt,” says Mr English.

ENDS

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