The Government has no intention of selling student loan accounts to the private sector, Tertiary Education Minister Max Bradford said today.

He was commenting after a tiresome claim from the Alliance that the Government had talked to the Westpac Banking Corporation about the securitisation of student loans earlier this year.

Mr Bradford said he had not met with a representative of Westpac or any person from the private sector to discuss the potential sale of loans.

“The Government’s position is clear. Student loans are not for sale.

“Liz Gordon already knows this as I have told her at least three times this year, but she continues to be hell bent on distorting the facts for political gain.

“She is trying to beat up an election issue where there isn’t one,” Mr Bradford said.

"The option of securitisation was fleetingly mentioned in the review of the Student Loan Scheme last year. Many other options were also mentioned.

"During the review the Treasury advised that, "past work on securitisation has concluded that the cost of selling the risk posed.

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>