Can National Really Change its Spots?

Can National Really Change its Spots?

Friday, 15 June 2007,

Can National Really Change its Spots?

If National are to avoid its mistakes of the nineties it needs to change some if its policies.

Their tertiary education policy still advocates the reforms on education made by the last National government that badly failed students and the country.

OPSA welcomes any real deviation away from this path. Mr Key is quite right when he says "there are half a million New Zealanders who've now got used to not paying interest and we have to listen to that pretty carefully", and he probably also thinking about the next generation of families who adding further debt to their children will be pretty unpopular.

Indeed National probably remember the effects their highly unpopular education reforms from their last term in office: National dramatically increased Labour's student fees, ended universal student allowances, invented student debt, attempted to destabilise students' associations, and made quality/funding cuts. These rampant reforms saw education a consistent top 3 voter concern during their entire term. But can National really change its spots?

OPSA is under no illusion that Mr Key's motivation to keep interest-free is because of the popularity of interest-free rather than any admission of the failures of National's previous education policies. Students are sick of being a political football for the last two decades and OPSA welcomes any real commitment from National to not reversing interest-free.

ENDS

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