Partisan Hacks

It got smashed. Hammered. Trolleyed. Woke up in a dark alley with some stitch-marks where its kidney should be. With this Budget, National have proven that they’ve got no grasp of the issues facing students today. Their changes to student loans do nothing to diminish debt – they only reduce the size of your pay packet and make wish you were working overseas. Axing the Student Allowance for postgrad students discourages our best and brightest from upskilling or doing their study domestically. So what would NZF do differently? Zero fees, a Universal Student Allowance, and our Dollar- for-Dollar repayment plan.

Vic Labour – ReeD Fleming

Last week’s zero Budget dealt a huge blow to students, further pushing our best overseas. Student loan repayment rates increased by20 per cent, loan repayment bonuses scrapped and access to postgraduate student allowances abolished. All this when the Government wants more engineers, scientists, doctors, and teachers. These changes are tragically contradictory, hurt students and New Zealand and won’t help grow a smart, sustainable economy. Labour believes that tertiary education is an investment in our future; National sees it simply as another cost that can be cut.

Vic Nats – Joel Rowan

VicNats welcomes the extra funding to institutions – especially the higher funding rates for engineering and science degrees, and for research. VicNats wants to ensure that student loans remain interest free, and support is available for those who truly need it, so that higher education continues to be accessible and open for those who work hard towards it.

Greens @ Vic – harriet farquar

This Government has its priorities well out of line. We are paying for $12 billion for uneconomic motorways, $2 billion for the 2008 tax cuts, and $1.1 billion to subsidise polluters under the Emissions Trading Scheme. Meanwhile, we are slashing student allowances and hiking up repayment costs for loans, entrenching a growing inequality in the ability to access education in this country. Education is vital to a productive economy, and these cuts show a complete lack of foresight.

ACT On Campus

Unfortunately, ACT On Campus did not respond to Salient’s quite reasonable query this week. Shame, that.