Written By: - Date published: 4:18 pm, January 31st, 2008 - 78 comments
Categories: education, flip-flop, inoculation -
Tags: education, flip-flop, inoculation
National have just backed down on their opposition to interest free student loans.
Back in 2005 Key called this ‘a policy that tells young New Zealanders to go and borrow to the hilt What a cost to the country! What an unaffordable and irresponsible cost to the country! It is a sad day National members will be opposing this legislation with every bone in our bodies’
Now the interest free student loan policy is just the latest in a long series of John Key’s “policy inoculations”. From Colin Espiner’s blog:
Labour’s interest-free student loans policy was a big ‘dead rat’ to have to swallow, but John Key had no choice but to hold his nose and throw it down the hatch.
Labour will howl ‘policy theft’ and there will be more accusations of ‘me-tooism’ against National. And some might say fair enough. I reckon Key has engineered at least ten policy reversals since becoming leader (perhaps someone wants to count?). The biggies include income-related state rents, KiwiSaver MK1, Working for Families Mk1, and the Cullen super fund.
In his ongoing quest to clear the decks and remove the stench of the Brash years from National, it does appear at times as if Key is simply removing reasons not to vote National, rather than giving people reasons to vote for it.
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They originally protested at the cost of the scheme, yet plan to make it cost more than it currently does by giving incentives for repayments. I doubt the incentives will be offset by voluntary savings.
Fact is, it’s not too bright to piss and moan about the cost of a scheme when you plan to throw more money at it.
[Dad, you're banned. Go away.]
[lprent - junk warning - this is probably dad4justice under yet another alias. It is in his usual IP range and with the usual comment type.]
[lprent - well at least he sometimes shows a sense of humour]
As late as October last year, Bill English was criticising interest-free loans and now we’re menat to trust them?
I love Key’s response to being asked why they changed their loans policy “because we lost the last election”
Watch Davey try to desperately spin for National:
http://www.kiwiblog.co.nz/2008/01/national_promises_incentive_to_make_voluntary_loan_repayments.html
It’s actually painful to read.
Yeah, this is pretty sad. At least if they’d stuck to their guns they could have retained some sort of credibility.
Mind you, it’s no worse than Labour’s – and as much as it pains me because I loathe people who want to debate the cult of personality – and Helen Clarke’s furious backpeddling on the smacking debate.
It’s fair enough to call out John Key’s turnaround on this issue. But how about Helen on other matters?
JK was just on Nat radio talking about ‘the fair value of the book’, fair value is based around resale value. Do we smell privatisation of student loans down the track.
The furious back peddling is not good, but from my POV its a good policy. Gives certainty…
Well done JK
Andy – I would be feeling very little certainty – all they seem to want to do is keep Labour’s policies. If that was really the case, they wouldn’t be running against Labour – so I’d keep a sharp eye out for those subtle differences, and try to read between the lines.
CAP: the trout (which one?)
I’m not sure he is backing down on opposing the principal pf the policy, just saying it is too entrenched and he will live with it. I suspect there are many Nat policies that labour has had to do likewise despite opposing initially.
Matthew,
Certainty for student loans ONLY, for the next three years.
Like I said, I smell privatisation from the way he was talking about the loan book on Nat radio.
I think this is actualy designed to repair the lost trust of the first wave of borrowers who were given free reign on borrowing and abused the SL system got themselves in hock thanks to Lockwoods stupidity. As that demographic is is hitting the dirty 30′s.
I have friends who for the first time in decades saw their SL balance actually drop, they had given up on ever paying it off, and the minimum 10% was not to painful a tax to pay.
They are all very happy to see the light at the end of the tunnel and JK has just offered another lolly, pay extra and we pay 10% aswell.
Very clever, because also in three years the total outstanding SL amount (9 Billion from memory) will drop and stabilise, then JK can claim that he has fixed the SL problem. The average loan now is smaller and easier to pay off.
I agree its about buying votes. It took guts to back track..
Oh this is now very funny – having set the agenda and pissing Labour off because national have taken this item off the political agenda and at the same time they have incentivised people to “pay off the loan fast, Labour’s weak and pathetic reaction is to criticise for offering an incentive to pay back the money more quickly.
Angry man Peter Hodgson is demonstrating how pathetic he really is. As David Farrar points out it would be politically unfeasible to introduce interest – so it makes sense to live with the policy – but the next step is to actually get the money back in the door. Offering an incentive for people to pay back the money will probably lower the default rate and it means the money can then be redistributed to other students or used for other government projects.
Summed up – National continue to set the agenda, and Labour are left looking on as pathetic and desperate.
On top of the widely approved speech by John Key early this week, stand by for another good increase in the polls as we soak up the student vote. (and recent graduates)
Monty,
Or does Mr and Mrs average just dicount this from voting decisions now. i don’t think it soaks up the student vote it negates it for both parties. Level playing field, the lolly scramble has started.
I have a SL, it now a tick on my list that both are offering. Ceterus parabus??
captcha: strongest jan
So, a complete about-turn. We cross live now to Kiwiblog for the reaction:
“Four legs good, two legs better!
Four legs good, two legs better!”
Dad, go do some gardening or something productive.
Er, I think you kinda missed the point there Andy.
Keeping loans interest free comes at a cost – a lost opportunity cost, if nothing else, because capital must work to remain capital. Extending capital in the no-interest scheme bites into what the capital COULD earn if it were being used more efficiently. On balance, giving a dividend to put the capital back into a vehicle where it CAN work should outweigh the cost of the dividend. Interest on loans is the “work” capital does – and the loan is the capital. Getting the loans back faster is in every taxpayer’s interest.
Which party is your preffered party of Government?
Have you voted in the poll at http://www.nzdebate.blogspot.com
National are doing a much better job than Labour thus far.
In 2005 JK predicted ‘a whole financial industry’ would develop as people abused the student loan scheme.
Never happed, John.
Nats are really good at U turns, and shifting goal posts!.
Nats are really good at U turns, you should about them here and ignore Labour’s and over on Kiwiblog they shout about how good Labour are at U turns and ignore National’s.
Cool, what’s a better idea. Come up with a better fairer policy to encourage repayment – I can’t think of a better way, can you? If so please explain and we can debate it’s merits.
ooops, first ‘shoud’ above should be ‘shout’.
Which party is your preffered party of Government?
Have you voted in the poll at http://www.nzdebate.blogspot.com
Simeon – if you insist on link-whoring to your crappy site at least try to make it relevant.
Don’t worry Daveo – Simeon has to go back to school on Thursday, young mass-debate will quieten down then.
Our Farm Correspondent,
Apologies, got it!
“I love Key’s response to being asked why they changed their loans policy “because we lost the last election’”
Isn’t it refreshing though that he’s honest about it?!
I mean would Labour have introduced the policy in the first place if they weren’t struggling in the polls before the 2005 election? Labour also did a bit of a U-turn after Brash’s Orewa speech. Both the main parties adjust their policies depending on what proves popular.
The nats have a few days left at their caucus retreat I think. Who knows what they will come up with in that time. It is always interesting when the right does something unusual and starts to think. Strange things can occur.
This one, free student loan policy, is such a reversal. Bill English in particular was adamant that it was a bad idea.
Aj,
“In 2005 JK predicted ‘a whole financial industry’ would develop as people abused the student loan scheme.
Never happed, John”
Erm… WRONG!
That is EXACTLY what’s happened, and the big fat bribe Cullen is offering on Kiwisaver has made it an awful lot easier. I’ve got colleagues who are enthusiastically pushing their children toward the student loans scheme, with the explicit goal of getting them a kick-start on savings… these are familys that could pay for their kids uni fees, but the cash rort is just too good to miss!
There is a huge profit to be made for the savvy student.
It would politically to difficult to reverse somthing like the student schene now that is embedded.
We all remember Hellen backing out of her racist policy’s after Don’s one law for all speech.
Swollowing Dead Rats is something all parties are guilty of.
mike: an interesting set of statements.
I don’t remember labour or Helen doing any such thing. Care to provide a link to back up that claim? MSM please – I’m not really interested in the circular brown-nosing that often passes as fact on the extreme right or extreme left.
However you are correct, all parties to some degree of another do accept changes that they don’t like and live with them. However at present it is the number of u-turns of the Nats that is interesting.
I’d be interested in such a page. Be fun pointing it to my nat supporter friends.
captcha: cigarettes the
what a good idea
I’d be interested in such a page. Be fun pointing it to my nat supporter friends.
Hi AG. This isn’t MSM, and they aren’t all Key flip flops, but Kiwiblogblog has an interesting list:
http://kiwiblogblog.wordpress.com/2008/02/01/nationals-back-flip-fever/
rOb: good page, and interesting comments by the faithful right. They seem almost embarrassed.
The MSM was about mike’s claim. Leaving aside his emotive language, I can’t remember labour changing policies or even changing the proposed order of implementing policy after Brash’s Owera I.
What I do remember is a lot of speculation by the right about what labour would do. Presumably mike is confusing that speculation with fact.
captcha: face deploying
sounds like the nats at present
AG: do you not recall the raft of race based scholarships and incentives disappearing in a matter of months. They did exist and now they don’t or is it just the selective memory you pinko’s seem to have?
As I recall Mike there’s a great bit in the Hollow Men where Brash’s team ask the research unit to come up with some examples of race-based preference. They came up with some pretty desperate and laughable stuff, but nothing concrete.
Couldn’t this actually be seen as something positive towards a new direction Key wants to take National under his leadership? National has definitely shifted more towards the middle ground so surely, if they can actually win an election, that is good for the country as a whole.
Key supports the so-called race-based policies that Brash attacked.
From his Tuesday speech:
“We’ll ensure there’s a range of programmes available that cater to the individual needs of the offenders and their whanau. This would include iwi-based services and other services aimed specifically at Maori or other cultural groups.”
Mike, you’d better have a word with that pinko Key.