INDEPENDENT NEWS

Alliance 'Tertiary Bribe' An Insult To Students

Published: Tue 21 Sep 1999 12:07 AM
The Alliance is insulting the intelligence of the country's students with its crazy tertiary bribe announced yesterday, according to ACT Education Spokesman Donna Awatere Huata.
Speaking to students at Canterbury University today Mrs Huata said the Alliance was becoming more and more extreme in its policy announcements to try and lift its poll ratings.
"By releasing such ill-thought out policies the Alliance is alienating itself from those it's trying to woo and the Party is becoming a major embarrassment to its coalition partner, the Labour Party.
"Students know that while the Alliance is promising to tax today's hard working New Zealanders to shoulder the burden of their tertiary education, in a few years time those students will be the ones struggling to run their own businesses and pay for the Alliance's promises.
"The cost of the Alliance's policy would be astronomical. While the Alliance was robbing hard working New Zealanders to pay for its tertiary bribe it would completely ignore the education needs of the many thousands of children struggling just to make it past primary school.
"It is at the pre school and primary school level that we need to be focusing our efforts to make sure we have students who can go on to University. At present one in four children can't even read or write properly.
"The politics of envy promoted by the Alliance have no place in New Zealand today. We all have to pitch in to get ahead. We all have to look to the future and carefully study the impact of decisions and promises being made by politicians today.
"The Alliance's tertiary policy is nothing more than a cynical attempt to win votes. It is wrong for the Alliance to play with the futures of our tertiary students in this way. They are being totally dishonest.
"The Alliance's latest extremist policy is a warning to us all that the Party is not fit to be anywhere near Government," said Donna Awatere Huata. ENDS
ENDS

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