By Harris Dowson

New Zealand, while a small country, is home to thousands of different values and beliefs. This means that when it comes to politics, obviously not everything will be important to you. Politics is hardly something that entices excitement for most New Zealanders and this isn’t really a surprise. Compacting the perspectives and values of every New Zealander is a massive undertaking. It’s because of this overwhelmingly large task to serve all New Zealanders, that politics can often seem noisy, pointless and just plain uninteresting.

Politics doesn’t have to be that way however, you just have to learn to distil it. Here at AUT we are no different from the greater New Zealand public, we all come from different backgrounds and all have different perspectives, yet we do share one major thing in common. We are all students and we’re all living the student life. So by distilling our political perspective down to that point maybe we can look into policies without falling asleep. Let’s start with what policies are going to affect us directly as students, then maybe if we can manage that we can cast a wider net for our political perspectives.

Starting small, viewing things that affect us and our families directly makes wading through the mass of politics much easier. Getting involved is important and every vote matters; so taking the time to engage in something often viewed as dull, in any way you can is hugely important.

So here it is a list of policies from all our major parties that will affect you the student personally.

Green party

Student Green Card:

Give all tertiary students and apprentices in New Zealand free off-peak travel on buses, trains and ferries, through a Student Green Card. Free off-peak travel for those in education and training is good for students’ back pockets and good for all commuters.

Faster into homes:

Helps young people into home ownership sooner by:

Creating a scheme which allows student loan borrowers to defer paying back their student loan to help them save for a house.

Allow anyone who is earning over the repayment threshold of $19,000 to defer part or all of their mandatory 12 percent student loan repayment into a housing deposit savings account.

Establish a fund, held by the IRD, which would approve student loan diversion savings (combined with KiwiSaver and other savings) to be spent on buying or building a first home.

Give people the option of saving for a home deposit now and paying off their student loan once they have secure housing.

Ensure that any savings not allocated towards a first home are transferred back to student loan balances.

Labour

Reducing the burden of student loans

Investigate voluntary bonding arrangements whereby graduates can have some or all of their loan written-off in exchange for work in the public sector or in areas of critical skill shortage, particularly in teaching and nursing.

Supporting participation in higher education

Adjust student support arrangements to ensure all students can meet the increasing cost of living.

Putting the FREE back into free education

Labour will progressively introduce 3 years of free post-school education, allowing access to university, polytechnic or on-job training for young New Zealanders and those who have not studied before.

National

$132.1m investment in tertiary education

$52.5 million for the Performance-Based Research Fund to incentivise and reward high-quality research in tertiary education. $69.3 million for increased tuition subsidy rates at qualification level three and above, helping providers to deliver skills and knowledge for a stronger economy. $6.8 million of funding to support sustainable growth in the international education sector to strengthen the net benefit to New Zealand and its value to our regions. $3.5 million of reprioritised funding to meet increased demand for workplace-based literacy and numeracy programmes in 2018.

NZ First

Universal living allowance

Introduce a universal living allowance which is not subject to parent means testing as a priority for all full-time students.

Review the student loan scheme

With a goal of reducing its burden on former students, in particular those on low incomes within the first years of leaving study

Improve Studylink

Ensure that all students have smooth and efficient engagements with Studylink through improving links with the IRD, with appropriate privacy considerations in place.

ACT

No discernible tertiary education policies available

United Future

No discernible tertiary education policies available

The Opportunities Party

Youth unconditional basic income

If you are between 18 and 23