Hon Trevor Mallard
Minister of Education

24 August 2005 Media Statement

Tory calculator misleads again

As well as its misleading tax calculator, the National party is also misleading voters with its student loan calculator, Education Minister Trevor Mallard said today.

"On Monday I warned that National Party is misleading voters about the benefits of its tax cuts because their tax calculator failed to account for the 20 hours free early childhood education at licensed teacher-led services that Labour will provide for three and four year olds each week from 2007.

"Labour's policy for 20 hours a week free early childhood education will be worth around $90 a week or $4680 a year to kiwi families compared to National's childcare tax rebates of a maximum of $1,650 per child. National's calculator conveniently and deceptively ignores this fact.

"National should at least attempt to show some credibility and get the details right for a change. Their student loans calculator is just as shonky and dishonest as their tax calculator as it understates the benefits of Labour's student loan policy for people with large student loans.

"The calculator only calculates savings for a maximum $40,000 loan. If your loan is higher than $40,000, then it will understate how much you save under Labour and the distortion grows the higher the loan.

"A person with a $50,000 loan and earns $50,000 a year saves $3,071 in interest in the first year under Labour.

"But if you use National's calculator, it will tell you that this person only saves $2800 in the first year.

"And the dishonesty gets worse if your loan is higher than this. If you are on a $50,000 salary with a $65,000 loan, you will save $3491 under Labour - not the $2800 that National's calculator claims is saved under Labour."

Around 30,000 people have a student loan of higher than $40,000.

ENDS

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