Minister for Tertiary Education Max Bradford today challenged Labour leader Helen Clark to come clean with the real facts of a student loan case she cited during the leaders debate last night.

During the debate Miss Clark mentioned an unemployed adult student whose loan had grown from $6,000 to $14,000 since he finished studying.

“This increase seems to defy logic,” Mr Bradford said.

“Loans should never be able to grow out of control whether someone is unemployed or working.

“This is because the Government writes-off all the base interest that a borrower can’t cover through his or her minimum repayment.

“This means loans only increase at the rate of inflation due to an inflation adjustment figure of about 2%.

“If Miss Clark is really worried about this case maybe she should give me the full details so I can look into it. It could be that the borrower has not been treated fairly.

“Either there is a misunderstanding, or the facts are not as stated by Miss Clark.”

Mr Bradford said he was writing to Miss Clark to ask for the details of the case as it was only fair for the student public and tax payers to get to the bottom of what sounds like an incomprehensible outcome of the Student Loan Scheme.

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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.

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