Over the weekend too, Nicola Willis announced policy around student loans. And finally, finally, finally, we have a government that's going to get tough on overseas student loan defaulters.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said yesterday that National will introduce harsher penalties on Kiwis who move overseas and simply refuse to pay back the New Zealand taxpayer.

This is about making it a bit easier for people who have a student loan and are in New Zealand and sending a stronger message to those offshore that they're expected to repay their loan. We've got to get that balance right.

Ultimately, if you do study in New Zealand, you're being heavily subsidised by the New Zealand taxpayer, and we do that because we want you contributing to our economy and our community. It will always be the case that some Kiwis will take their qualifications offshore, but when they do that, we expect them to pay New Zealand back.

Yeah, not that harsh, really, is it?

At the same time, Nicola Willis said at the press conference yesterday, the party if re-elected will reduce the compulsory student loan repayment rate for those who stay in the country to 10 cents on every dollar earned above 24,128 It's down from 12 cents currently.

That's not going to set the world on fire, but I think going after the defaulters is a good move.

What does annoy me though, every time the story is written about, generally by Generation Z reporters, New Zealand's student loan scheme was introduced in 1992 by the Jim Bolger led National government, replacing a long standing system of near free tertiary education.

The implication being those vile right wing fascists from National took away a God given right for every New Zealand young person to be able to attend university for free and put in a student loan scheme.

What they don't say is that there were incredibly tough conditions around getting into university in the first place.

Not everybody could go. It was academically rigorous and it was kept to the very highest marks generated by young people around the country.

You couldn't just saunter into a BA while you faffed around and decided what you wanted to do. It was really, really tough to get into university.

After it became a bums on seats model where you could pay and go if you wanted to, sure, it became more open so people were able to go to university even if they didn't have the very highest marks. Great. So that was a change in policy. But I do wish they'd keep, or at least remind people, that sure, loans were introduced replacing the free system, but it also meant that more people could go to university and get a tertiary education if they wanted one and if they were willing to pay for one.

But anything that's going to help get back the billions of dollars those freeloaders refuse to pay back is a good thing.

But do you know what? I can almost write the script on this one. Bear with me. National is re elected and as part of a coalition government introduces tough measures targeting overseas loan defaulters.

Six months down the track, an extremely attractive young person working for a not for profit in London or Melbourne will have a mental health crisis. Their grieving family will point to the student loan debt as the catalyst for the mental health crisis and blame the heartless actions of a brutal centre right regime.

A grim faced young reporter on the old man's news at 6:00pm will conclude with dire warnings of more mental health crises if the government doesn't pull back on its vicious crackdown of Aotearoa's best and brightest. That's One News. Can you not write the script?

I mean, it won't be an unattractive person that they'll profile.

There may well be mental health crises as people realise actually they're going to have to face their debt mountain. They're going to have to enter into negotiations with IRD. They're going to have to start paying it back.

It is, it's tough. It will be tough. But anybody unattractive won't be profiled.

It'll be somebody gorgeous who works for Greenpeace or Save the Panda or something. Something lovely. I can absolutely write the script.

And I know how tough it is when you get behind on bills and payments, especially when you're young. I remember it well. It's a sick feeling in the pit of your stomach, a sense of hopelessness, I'll never be able to get on top of this, so why do I even try?

But I also know that the only way you can overcome that mountain of debt is by tackling it head on and digging away at it one automatic payment at a time.

Burying your head in the sand and hoping it goes away is not a strategy, certainly not for the best and the brightest, you'd think they'd know better.

We have been trying for decades now to get these bludgers to pay back their loans. We've appealed to their better natures, to their patriotism. It is time now to get tough and finally we have a government that's committed to doing so.

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