MANA Vice President John Minto

7th May 2012

The Going Gets Tougher for Maori and Pacifica Students

Mana wants to know what advice the Tertiary Education Minister Stephen Joyce received about the likely impact of his proposals for cuts in student allowance entitlements before he made them public last week.

“It’s clear the impact of the changes will be felt most heavily by students from low-income families and that means Maori and Pacifica students in particular” says Mana Education spokesperson John Minto.

“We want to know what policy advice he had on this and what response he received from the Maori Party who will be voting in favour of these changes in the budget later this month”.

Joyce announced that this year’s budget will include a four –year freeze on the parental income threshold for a student allowance as well as a maximum 200 weeks of access to these payments to support students through their tertiary education. The four-year freeze means each year fewer students from families on low incomes will be able to qualify for an allowance while the 200 week maximum payment period means Maori and Pacifica students in particular will be heavily discouraged from entering longer courses such as optometry or medicine or do post graduate study.

“The “savings” of $60 to $70 million mean real “cuts” to the income of families least able to make up the shortfall and give their kids the best education possible”.

“The going just got tougher”.

“It’s another example of a government shifting the financial burden onto the backs of the poor so the National/Act/Maori Party Government can continue with the $2 billion in tax cuts for wealthy New Zealanders from earlier budgets”.

“We should be removing barriers to tertiary education for these young New Zealanders rather than adding barbed wire and broken glass to the top”.

Mana has made an Official Information Act request for the advice to the Minister on these radical changes.

ENDS

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