Well feel more informed on here than after reading any of the papers.
Please don't vote National (I realise some of ya will), I want some transport in Auckland, free tertiary education for the kids and some attempt to tackle some of our problems: housing, aging population with health and super, climate change, homelessness and working poverty and mental health. And I don't really think the baby boomers give too much of a crap. It's about time for a re-balance.
Off for a month! Looks like most of the team will be in place for a decent pre-season. A longer season of the 4-3-3 would be good too. Catchyas
Free tertiary education is a really bad policy. Why should non tertiary attendees subsidise middle class children to attend university. It is completely regressive
Why do you think university students are middleclass? What we shouldn't be doing is paying for peoples education only to have them leave the country, they need to be generating wealth here to pay back our investment in them.
I'd be in favor of something like you get a student loan but the government helps you pay it back as long as you stay in the country - perhaps instead of the kiwisaver contribution.
Anything which benefits university education should also have corresponding benefits for apprenticeships, etc.
But really people need education more than ever before as jobs continue to be lost to automation people are going to have to be flexible and change careers multiple times, a general purpose education helps more than specific skills in this situation.
People who attend university are drawn from wealthier backgrounds - that is a fact
I think people view student loans the wrong way. A student loan is essentially an additional tax you pay for the benefit of attending university (you only repay it when you earn over a certain threshold so it's basically a form of taxation).