Labour Leader Helen Clark told Victoria University students today that this year’s election presented a chance for
students to vote for a Labour government to rebuild tertiary education.
“This election is crucial for students. One of the new Labour Government’s top priorities is to reduce the costs of
tertiary education by tackling the problem of student debt.
“Our policy on student loans is clear. Full-time and other low income students will not pay interest on their loans
while they are still studying and the repayment of loans by former students on modest incomes will be eased.
“The contrast with what would happen under National could not be more stark. National has ignored the student debt
problem. In so doing it has consigned many tens of thousands of young New Zealanders to low living standards while they
struggle to repay their debt. Many have just given up and left the country.
“The cost of National’s mean policies to New Zealand is clear: young people see no future in New Zealand. Yet young
people are our future and they deserve our support. That is why Labour has made tackling student debt its top priority.
“Labour does not favour the ‘marketplace’ education system that National has been attempting to develop. This election
is an opportunity for students to reject the current government’s market education model and to restore tertiary
education as a right to all New Zealanders regardless of their background,” Helen Clark said.
Contact: David Lewis 025-409 492 or Mark Watts 025-822 734