Today Sir Fresh3001 spoke to students at Otumoetai College about intergenerational fairness and what National would do to help young Kiwis now and in the future. The former Prime Minister met with senior pupils of the nearly 2000-strong student body and discussed topics such as tertiary education, housing affordability, and the burden of superannuation.

Student A: “What’s National going to do for me as I head to university? I’m worried about student debt and wonder why National is against free tertiary education.”

Sir Fresh: “Well the fact is that while free university sounds like a nice idea, it’s neither free nor a good policy. To put it bluntly, I disagree entirely with the idea of paying to reinforce the privilege of predominantly middle to upper class kids. New Zealand has a perfectly reasonable student loan scheme where you pay no interest provided that you remain in the country, and when you’re earning enough to afford it the money will be repaid. Not only will this ensure that the poor don’t subsidise the education of the wealthy, it means that money can be spent on other areas like our health system or earlier education. Instead, National plans to address the area where students really struggle - living costs. In line with that same ethos of ‘paying your own way’ we’ll expand the weekly limit to Student Loan Living Costs - from $230 a week to $280. This means that students will have access to an extra $50 a week to spend on the things that matter, and will ease a financial burden which can distract from your studies.”

Student A: “Well, I suppose that sounds reasonable.”

Student B: “Okay, so what does National think about housing affordability? We’ve got some of the highest house prices in the world here in Tauranga and more needs to be done to address this issue.”

Sir Fresh: “I totally agree, and that’s why I was very disappointed when my Resource Management (Reform) Bill was voted down in Parliament in the term before last. National will focus on restricting the power of district planners in the Resource Management Act so that arbitrary or excessive limits can’t be placed on what and where things get built. Areas which need reform include height and density restrictions, as well as rural-urban boundaries and certain aesthetic conditions. Unaccountable bureaucrats in local government should not be handed the keys to the castle especially when the stakeholders affected by housing affordability are often those without the power. It’s a fact of life that local government will have less engagement from voters, especially youth ones, despite the fact that anti-development attitudes can have serious ramifications.

Student B: “Hmm, alright. My thoughts were similar. Thanks Sir Fresh!”

Student C: “To me the future costs of superannuation is a big issue. With an ageing population and excessively generous entitlements, the government’s finances could end up in crisis. What does National think about this?”

Sir Fresh: “Well, National had implemented a policy to progressively raise the age of superannuation from 65 to 67 in order to reduce that burden - unfortunately the Greens repealed this. Now, we have a slightly different proposal - tie the age of superannuation entitlement to health expectancy. This’d mean that people will retire when they aren’t able to work and would reflect the advances of modern medicine. Obviously this would also reduce the burden of superannuation on government finances. We’d also stop tying the rate of superannuation to wages and instead have it tied solely to the consumer price index. This’d mean that as productivity increases the cost of superannuation comes down, rather than the reverse.”