Internet Party bio photo

Internet Party

New Zealand Political Party.

Twitter Facebook Google+ Instagram Github Pinterest Youtube

Internet MANA

Summary

If Free Tertiary Education was a higher priority than tax cuts and a priority for new spending, we could deliver it immediately. Internet MANA will deliver free education, protect academic freedom, and foster diverse areas of study. We will deliver:

  • No fees for study in public tertiary institutions
  • Universal student allowance
  • Restore the student allowances for post-graduate students and the Training Incentive Allowance
  • Set up a brand new summer jobs programme for students
  • Develop a comprehensive loan forgiveness programme for those with existing debt

Overview

Why Internet MANA is making Free Tertiary Education a priority

The government’s objective broadly expressed, is that every person, whatever his level of academic ability, whether he be rich or poor, whether he live in town or country, has a right, as a citizen, to a free education of the kind for which he is best fitted, and to the fullest extent of his powers.

Clarence Beeby, Director of Education (NZ), 1938

It is clear that if Free Tertiary Education was treated as a higher priority than tax cuts, and made one of the priorities for new spending, we could deliver it immediately.

New Zealand’s future economic, cultural and social wellbeing will depend on our knowledge base and our ability to understand and to innovate in all fields of action.

The success of all Internet MANA’s priorities – from the development of a strong technology sector, to Eliminating Poverty, enabling all children to learn Te Reo, creating modern schools, the development of successful social enterprises, and tackling public health challenges, to name just a few – will depend on our ability as a country to collect and assess evidence, engage the public in problem solving and foster innovation.

Internet MANA will strengthen our tertiary education system, protect academic freedom, and foster diverse areas of study as well as those that have direct application to immediate challenges.

The introduction of free tertiary education will take pressure off students, their parents and graduates establishing careers, families and businesses.

It will end the iniquity of student debt, which now stands at $14.232 billion, with around 725,000 people currently carrying current student debt.

It will address high levels of student hardship.

Free tertiary education does not cost more than user pays. It transfers the cost from individual students and their families to the wider community. Graduates with higher earning power then help the next generation to learn through progressive taxation. Their increased skills improve the productivity and profitability of our businesses. That is the nature of the social contract.

Our problem is not a lack of wealth, it’s about how wealth is distributed. Whilst over 270,000 children live in poverty, the 175 wealthiest New Zealanders had an increase in wealth of $3.3 billion in 2013/14 alone.

To fully-fund course fees, introduce a universal student allowance, and progressively write-off existing student debt would cost less than the amount that National has indicated will be available for tax cuts from 2017.

Internet MANA will:

The elements of Free Tertiary Education

No fees

  1. No fees for study in public tertiary institutions: universities, polytechs and wananga.

  2. No fees in Maori Private Training Establishments [PTEs] that are providing quality courses where wananga are not present, as a Treaty partnership responsibility of the Crown.

  3. Immediate review of the funding of private tertiary institutions with the intention of removing fees for institutions which are meeting needs for educationally disadvantaged groups/providing training in skill shortage areas and are not in competition with public providers.

Universal student allowance, Training Incentive Allowance and summer work

  1. Removal of the parental income test for the student allowance and review the level of the student allowance and access to add-on allowances to eliminate student hardship.

  2. Restore the student allowances for post-graduate students.

  3. Include the student allowance rate in comprehensive review of the level of welfare payments (which will include exploration of a change to the tax/welfare system based on concept of a Universal Basic Income see our Eliminating Poverty policy).

  4. Reinstate the Training Incentive Allowance

  5. Set up a brand new summer jobs programme for students, including opportunities to gain experience in the industries and services that students are interested in entering and allowing them to offer their developing knowledge and skills to communities.

Reducing the existing debt burden

  1. No interest on existing loans.

  2. Increase the threshold for the commencement of repayments.

  3. Debt repayment by the Government on behalf of borrowers on parental leave under the Parental Leave and Employment Protection Act at their average rate of repayment for the 12 months prior to taking leave.

  4. Develop a comprehensive loan forgiveness programme starting in 2016 for those with existing debt.

The cost of Free Tertiary Education

No fees - $568 million. Timing: Immediate

Universal student allowance - $570 million. Timing: Immediate

Summer job programme – funded as part of the Right to Work policy. Timing: Next summer

Increase in repayment threshold for existing loans, repay debt for workers on parental leave and debt write-off plan. Timing: A phased in plan from 2015 from a variety of funding sources.

Funding free tertiary education

National’s 2010 tax cuts robbed New Zealand of the opportunity to restore free tertiary education. Those tax cuts alone could have restored fee-free education, a universal student allowance and a longer term debt write-off programme. All of this could have been funded from the Government revenue lost.

During the election campaign National and Labour have each made new spending promises in excess of $15 billion.

Labour and the Greens have proposed tax increases on higher income earners and the introduction of a Capital Gains tax. Internet MANA supports these proposals to broaden the tax base and make the tax system more progressive, although our approach would be bolder.

National has indicated that it expects to have $1.5 billion available for tax cuts in 2017.

The Greens have proposed funding a 1% company tax cut and tax cuts for those earning up to $140,000 a year from the introduction of a Carbon Tax. While we support the replacement of the failed Emissions Scheme with a Carbon Tax we do not agree that the top priority for that revenue should be tax cuts for companies or high earners.

It is clear that if Free Tertiary Education was treated as a higher priority than tax cuts, and made one of the priorities for new spending, we could deliver it immediately.

Delivering Free Tertiary Education will depend on the Internet MANA Party Vote and negotiations with other parties.

The only way to make Free Tertiary Education a priority will be to party vote Internet MANA. No other parties have made this a top-level priority.

If Free Tertiary Education is one of your priorities, then help us make it a Government priority with an Internet MANA Party Vote.

The resources exist now. These are some of the issues that we would expect to negotiate with the other parties committed to changing the Government to deliver the funds for this policy. We have not included any funding proposed by other parties for the priorities we do share – such as Eliminating Child Poverty or building houses.

We do not have to trade off Free Tertiary Education against other important things. As you can see from below there are many options for funding which together provide many times the amount that would be needed for Free Tertiary Education:

  • Tax cuts our position is that taxes should not be cut before we have delivered core priorities, including Free Tertiary Education.
  • Tax increases even before considering Internet MANA proposals for taxation changes there are already proposals to increases the tax take. These proposals could be broadened. For example an increase in the top tax rate to 40 cents for only the income earned over $110,000 per year would deliver $750 million in revenue; a Carbon Tax as proposed by the Green Party would raise $955 million per year, Labour’s Capital Gains Tax would raise over $1 billion per year once fully implemented. So there are many tax options available which would make our tax system fairer and resource Free Tertiary Education.
  • Reallocating money from other areas for example Labour proposes to rapidly increase Supernannuation Fund contributions to $2.2 billion per year, and introduce compulsory Kiwisaver at a cost of $141 million in year one. Proposals like these need to be weighed against the cost and hardship to students, graduates, and their families, as well as the adverse impact of user pays education on innovation, social and economic wellbeing, of user tertiary pays education.
  • Restoration of ACC as a pay-as-you-go scheme the full funding insurance model for ACC was introduced to prepare ACC for privatisation. It is now widely agreed that ACC’s reserves are overfunded even for this purpose, and that both reserves (currently $25 billion) and levies could be reduced without impacting on the operation of the scheme and the meeting of entitlements. Internet MANA has already proposed to utilise a portion of reserves (the amount that is over and above even full funding) and to transfer employer and earner levy reductions for the next five years to its Right to Work policy. That includes a $400 million per year digital workforce development strategy, much of which will support initiatives in the tertiary education sector. Internet MANA will also review the funding model with a preference to return ACC to a pay-as-you go scheme. This will release substantial reserves for other projects including student debt relief.