English loans comparison invalid - Cullen

“Bill English has succeeded only in demonstrating his own ignorance in his attack on the interest free student loan costings released today by the government,” says Finance Minister Michael Cullen.

“His attempt to argue that the costs have increased relies on a false comparison. The numbers Mr English is comparing to did not include the accounting policy change from book value to fair value.

“The correct comparison is, therefore, with the operating provision impact as this excludes the accounting policy change.

“And, as the table below shows, these figures are a little lower than the Labour Party’s costings and significantly lower than the Treasury costings – as I said in my press statement this morning.

“Mr English is going to have to be a lot more careful with the facts if he wants to engage in this argument,” Dr Cullen said.

Labour Treasury English Correct Costings Comparison Comparison
2005-06 171 179 1,649 32

2006-07 209 237 369 218

2007-08 257 311 416 256

2008-09 302 390 442 286

2009-10 273 397 415 269

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