Our 2011 election manifesto - Labour Party

encourage young and energetic teachers to those less-sought-after schools including
assistance with payment of student loans, and the opportunity for accelerated promotion.
International education
International education contributes $2.3 billion to the New Zealand economy each year. In
addition it has spill-over benefits in terms of tourism, foreign investment and cultural
development.
Labour will support Education New Zealand, with an emphasis on promoting a high
quality experience for overseas students with an appropriate emphasis on pastoral
care and eliminating those providers not up to a high standard.
Labour will develop a coordinated marketing strategy for New Zealand education
internationally to ensure the best value for money.
Student support
Labour is proud of its record in government to provide greatly improved student support. In
the fifth Labour Government we removed interest on student loans while studying, before
later removing interest altogether. We also significantly widened access to student
allowances by increasing the parental income threshold, increased the availability of
scholarships, and capped fees through the fee maxima policy.
These policies have combined to increase the number of students receiving allowances by
30,000 in recent years and have reduced the median time taken to repay student loans
down to 5 years.
Despite this, the level of debt that students are accruing is still very high. Students remain
the only group in society that are required to borrow for basic costs such as food and rent.
National has now introduced changes designed to reduce access to the student loan
scheme through putting limits on the number of years students can borrow for, and including
a passing requirement. There are significant concerns about the impact of this on Māori and
Pacific students.
Labour will keep interest free student loans for all borrowers who remain in New
Zealand, and for those students continuing to study overseas, or who are working for
New Zealand government agencies overseas.
Labour will work with other countries to ensure that borrowers who leave New
Zealand and do not continue to make payments on their loans are identified and
payment arrangements made. Measures will include establishing reciprocal tax
agreements with countries, such as Australia and the UK where significant numbers
of students with loans are working.
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