Labour associate education spokesperson (tertiary) Steve Maharey said news that student interest rates will increase under National was further illustration of the major difference in policies between the two parties.

"Under Labour, full-time and other low income students will pay no interest on their student loans while they are still studying. Under National, current student loan interest rates will go up. The difference is clear," Steve Maharey said.

Steve Maharey was commenting on a news report saying the interest rate was likely to jump from 7% to 7.6% from April next year.

"Already, the interest rate on the student loan scheme is one of the major issues during this election campaign.

"It rankles students and their parents that they have to pay so much to get a decent education. This news is going to antagonise those voters even further.

"National's desperate game of catch-up politics over the student loan scheme is not working and will not work. Students and their families know that National has no real commitment to lowering the costs of tertiary education," Steve Maharey said.

© Scoop Media

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>>