Joyce, Dunne: there will be no private student loan company
27 August 2010

The Government has no plans to set up a private company to manage student loans, Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce and Revenue Minister Peter Dunne said today.

Mr Dunne described comments on a proposed student loan company from Labour tertiary education spokesman Grant Robertson as “totally unfounded mischief-making”.

“Mr Robertson totally ignored the fact that the article he sourced the information from already had a very clear statement of denial from the Government,” Mr Joyce said.

“This is just typical Opposition game-playing,” he said.

"With regard to possibilities around debt collection, for the most part, loans are paid off as they should be, but regularity of payments tend to slip especially when borrowers move overseas,” Mr Dunne said.

"To improve the efficiency of repayments from overseas, officials are investigating a number of options, including the possibility of more actively pursuing debts owed by overseas-based borrowers,” he said.

"The Government is constantly looking at ways to improve the management of the student loan debt which now stand at in excess of $10 billion,” the Ministers said.

Ends

Mark Stewart | Press Secretary | Office of Hon Peter Dunne
Cell +64 21 243 6985

Anita Ferguson | Press Secretary | Office of Hon Steven Joyce
Cell +64 21 243 1623