What the parties say about student loans

LABOUR


Raise parental income thresholds by unspecified amount to extend eligibility for student allowance and reduce need for student borrowing. Extend scheme to part-time, part-year students. Develop system of maximum fees.

NATIONAL


Will introduce a "you stay, we pay" scheme to write off a portion of student debt. Will write off 10 per cent of a graduate's debt every year for five years starting the first year after graduation. It will apply only to those in paid employment. Graduates who go overseas for part of the first five years will be eligible for the write-off for the years spent in New Zealand.

GREENS


Will introduce a debt write-off that wipes one year's borrowing for every year of paid or unpaid work in New Zealand, introduce a universal student allowance the same as the unemployment benefit, cap student fees at $1500, then phase them out.

ACT


Allow graduates to repay loans more easily through tax cuts. Consider concessionary rates of interest for graduates who stay and work in New Zealand. Review student allowance system and provide more assistance for most needy.

NZ FIRST


Set interest rates on student loans at consumers price index plus 2 per cent, set interest while studying at rate of CPI, phase in universal student allowance over three years, provide fees abatement for graduates to stay in New Zealand to fill skills shortages.

PROGRESSIVE COALITION


Reduce the interest on student loans. Keep fees frozen and progressively remove fees for first-year students. Increase student allowances. Explore scheme to repay debt through work in priority sectors and regions.

ALLIANCE


Scrap the student loan scheme. Extend the freeze on interest rates from students studying to all those with a student loan debt, and within three years devise a mechanism to write off all student loan debt, possibly phased in at $1000 a year. Introduce universal student allowance.

UNITED FUTURE


An interest freeze for students who are parents for the first two years of their children's lives, adjust the repayment threshold for such parents to reflect extra costs of child-rearing, universal allowance for students over 20.

Full news coverage:
nzherald.co.nz/election

Election links:
The parties, policies, voting information, and more

Ask a politician:
Send us a question, on any topic, addressed to any party leader. We'll choose the best questions to put to the leaders, and publish the answers in our election coverage.