Just this week I asked my daughter, a politics student at Auckland University, what she thought of the Finance Minister Bill English’s recent Budget.
“I’ve had a brief look at it and I’m not happy,” she replied.
What are you not happy about?
“The tightening of the student loans; you must have seen the protests (in the streets) and you can rest assured that will not be forgotten,” she replied vehemently. The student loan repayment rate has increased from 10 cents to 12 cents, the voluntary repayment bonus has been removed, as has been the eligibility for student loan allowances and post-graduate study.
Changes to student loans was one of the sour points of a Budget which has failed to deliver leadership and vision at a time when it is most needed.
English’s “paper boy tax” has also stunned many. School-aged children will no longer be entitled to a tax refund if they earned wages for part-time work.
As the lead article in this issue points out, the Government has again failed to show bravery in tackling the big issues, instead showing cowardice in “raiding kids’ piggy banks” to gather revenue over the next four years.
Some may argue that the Government made the hard decisions in order the save the economy, and the country from the upheavals facing Italy, Greece and Spain.
As the page 2 article, by Dev Nadkarni, says “the biggest elephant in the room – superannuation – the annual costs of which will equal or exceed the entire education budget by 2016 and threatens to eat into a large chunk of the outlay over the next decade has been completely ignored”.
“The National Party continues its ostrich like approach of burying its head in the sand saying it will not consider raising the super age from 65 to 67 as recommended by financial experts.”
Refusing to raise the super age may well be tied to a pre-election pledge may by Prime Minister John Key, who then said he would resign before a raised super age became a possibility.
Now into its second term in office, the “hard” decisions taken by the Government will not be easily forgotten – especially by those directly affected.