Labour to cut student loan interest

Labour have just announced

The Government will scrap interest payments on student loans held by people living in New Zealand, Prime Minister Helen Clark announced today.
She said the proposed change, which would begin on April 1 next year, would massively reduce loan repayment times.
The policy would cost $100 million in its first year, eventually rising to $300 million a year.
Miss Clark said the policy would form the second of Labour's seven pledge card election promises.
Labour's first pledge card promise is to widen the rates rebate scheme

I am a student who has just taken out a SL for course fees and I don't agree with this at all. The current system is perfectly fair with regards to course fees. I don't have to pay any interest while studying and after I stop studying I get charged interest at a low rate, plus the government already funds universities about 60%. Yes their is still an expense to studying but with regards to course fees the government is already investing thousands of dollars into each degree earned.

This new measure only benefits students after they stop studying (as they pay no interest while studying anyway). Surely the time to help them is while studying by paying a universal student allowance. I have said before and I will say it again I don't believe any government should LOAN money for living expenses.

Remove the ability to borrow for living expenses, pay a universal student allowance and keep interest on course fees once the borrower has finished studying

Work for the dole?

Should people have to work for the dole?

Yes, yes and yes!!!

I think it is vital that we establish something that once people have been on the unemployment benefit for longer then three months they should be required to perform some type of work or lose their benefit.
I think this should be the case for anyone on the unemployment benefit and anyone on the DPB whose youngest child is at school. Surely we are just encouraging a false reality by giving people something for nothing, I honestly think the people that a work for the benefit scheme would benefit would be the beneficiaries themselves.

I am tired and aren't capable of giving this the logic it deserves but post your comments anyway.

Should we tour?

I am interested in peoples opinions about whether the NZ cricket team should tour Zimbabwe? Their is a lot of pressure being put on the government to ban the cricket team from touring due to the human rights abuses in Zimbabwe and the fact that Mugabe is a patron of Zimbabwe cricket.
Currently the governments stance is that they can not stop the cricket team from touring as it was be an abuse of the NZ players human rights. They are saying it is up to NZ cricket to pull the plug. Problem is unless the government ban the NZ players from going then NZ cricket becomes liable for reimbursing the Zim team for the cost of the tour, by the time TV rights are taken into account this would be millions.

So what should happen?

My feeling is that the government should stop them from going, we can't be seen to support that regime in anyway. Although I think it is sad that the international community has done very little to stop what is going on in Zimbabwe and believe something should have been done a long time ago. It should not be left up to our sportsman to fight the political battle

Secondly the international Cricket Council should have suspended Zim from all cricket, due to the horrible conditions of this country.

I truly wonder if all the promises from the G8 will do much if we are going to fail to act in key situations like the one in Zimbabwe.

So what are your thoughts, should sports teams be used to make a political stand?

Singapore Airlines.

Sarah and I are now back safe and sound.
One of the pleasing aspects of our trip was flying Singapore Airlines. They are by far the best carrier I have ever flown on and regardless of price (within reason) I would always choose to fly with them again.
They have all the latest modcons on the plane, including about 30 movies that you can choose from, nintendo games system and a great music selection.
The real kicker though was their service, it was just fantastic. The staff are so friendly and run off their feet to keep you watered, fed and comfortable.
NZ could learn a lot about customer service from SA (in fact Singapore in general excelled in CS)

Safe and sound

We were in London when the bomb blast happened, it was our departure day. Thankfully we were not in central London at the time of the explosions, it was very surreal watching the coverage from my brothers house, knowing that these were stations we had been in the day before.
It was a dispicable act of terrorism and the scary thing is their is really no way of protecting the tubes. How do you protect something on which 3 million people travel on per day?

On a personal note thnkfully Heathrow airport was still open and I am writing this from Singapore.

A perfect day

Sarah and I have just had a fantastic day in Luzern, Switzerland. Luzern is a beautiful town with a awesome green lake. It is like Queenstown only it is not crowded and has lots of beautiful buildings. We decided to shell out some cash and do a tourist trip. It started with a 90 minute boat cruise through the lake which was truly breath taking. Then we went on the worlds steepest cogwell train up a 6000 foot mountain. The view was amazing and their were many cool walks to go on. From their we took a large cable car halfway down the mountain to a place where we could go toboganing (sp?, which was also a lot of fun. We then took a half an hour Gondola ride down to the bottm and then a 15 minute bus trip back to the centre of Luzern.

As it was about 30 degrees we asked our Hotel manager if their was a part of the lake where we could swim, he pointed out the local swimming area and we walk down and had a really nice dip. Then on the way back we bought a whole lot of junk food and got back to our room just in time to watch a cool thunder in lightening storm (actually we only watched the lightening!). Arrhhh a perfect day!

Oh yeah the rest of the trip has been great too!

We're going to Bonnie Doon

Sarah and I are off to Europe tomorrow!!! So next time I read this blog I will be in London. I am sure I will manage to make the odd blog from various exotic European locations. "We're going to Bonnie Doon"

Comfortable

Ever hear that prayer "Thank you God that we have so much freedom to worship you...." Everytime I hear it I think what would happen if the church in New Zealand was being persecuted and would it be such a bad thing? In so many places where persecution is happening the church is growing. Obviously having our freedom is a blessing, but when we trade freedom for comfort that is when we tend to get into trouble.

I often wonder if we have worked so hard at trying not to "turn people off the gospel" that we have lost the edge of "how to get them interested in the gospel". Surely the faith we have requires that sometimes we are put in a position where our faith is being persecuted (maybe not on a grand scale all the time but certainly to a higher degree then we currently see).

Oh how often I slump into a comfortable "ask me no questions and I won't step on your toes kind of faith". Oh God help me

End of the road

After over six years in the same work place I am coming to the end of the road! Today I have one week to go WOW!!! I am so looking forward to new challenges and what is in store for us up north but one part of me is sad. Few people get to work in a job where they learn something new (which they find interesting)everyday.

As I reflect on 6 years it once again reminds me of the Faithfulness of God, as he has been with me at work and grown me over the last six year so he will go ahead of me. I am so grateful for his continued favor and blessing in my life.

One more week to go YIPPPPEEEE!!!

Income splitting

United future have just released their policy on taxation and I must admit it is looking pretty good. I did not vote United Future in the last election but am quite impressed with their taxation policies. Income splitting for couples with dependent children is a fantastic way to invest into the family and give mothers a chance to stay home with their children(if they choose to). I think it would need clear guidelines around it and I would have a limitation of about 30k that could be passed to a partner.

The Threshold changes and first 3k being tax free are also quite reasonable in the context that they are also proposing income spliting

I am however very surprised for them to say that their total tax package is only going to cost 2 -3 billion and am suspicious that this may be just the threshold changes without taking into account the income splitting side of it.

Rediscovering the Cross

Time and time again I find myself having to rediscover the cross. When you really stop to think about the bible and what Jesus has done, it still is and will always be the most amazing truth ever told. What is it within me (us?) that wants to normalise it and break it down to something that doesn't give goose bumps every time I think it about.

"I cried Who nailed him their, this child of peace and mercy, who nailed him their come and face me like a man, who nailed him their and the crowd began to mock me, I cried owe my God I don't understand and then I turned and saw the hammer in my hand" - The Hammer - Ray Boltz

I don't want to live under condemnation but I want to strive to live under the constant conviction of the cross. That each day would be truely different because of what he has done for me and the power of his Spirit. In the mean time though I am having to rediscover the cross over and over again.

Seasons

With the cold snap I have been thinking about the seasons and come to conclusion, I like every season except spring. Summer is great because it is warm,fun and test cricket is on! Autumn is nice because it begins to cool off but the weather is consistant, and the trees look nice. Winter is nice because you get to rug up warm ,do nothing and it is footie season. But spring is the biggest let down (certainly in ch-ch) it is supposed to bring the hope of better weather but invaribly it rains heaps and is really incosistant. Cricket season starts but the pitches have more water on them then a hotel corrider after a visit from Dover. Yip I hate spring

Australian invasion

Thought I would do a bit of promoting for two new bloggers, who both happen to be Aussies!!
Lasalle and Shawn
Hope you don't mind the promotion fellas but I figure the point of a blog is not only a Journal but to grow from other peoples opinions.

As a side note I bet you all didn't know that I went to school with Scribe. That's right the voice of NZ hip hop and yours truely used to hang together (well not really he actually he punched me in the head in 4th form science!!!) I was friends with his cousin though,

Thinking banished

"We live in a world of frightful givens. It is a given that you will behave like this, it is a given that you will care about that. No one thinks about the givens. Isn't it amazing? In the information society, nobody thinks. We expected to banish paper but we actually banished thought" - Quote from Jurassic Park - The book(which I may add is a FANTASTIC read)

The true problems with Student Loans

So many people are arguing against the student loan system and how unfair it is, personally I think Student Loans are not the issue, student allowances are the key issue. I have no problem with people having to borrow money to pay for their course fees. Universities are 60% government funded anyway so the fact that we have the ability to borrow the rest of our fees (interest free while we study) is a pretty good deal. I think some student bodies have focused too hard on fee increases instead of focusing on the key issue which is allowances and borrowing for living costs. I think the fact that government would even consider having a system where it will loan money to students to live is a disgrace. If they paid a universal student allowance for anyone over 18 (not 20 like United Future suggest) they could cut out the option of borrowing to cover living costs. I believe no government with a surplus should ever be forcing (or even allowing) people to borrow money to live, that is the true issue with student loans

Who will intervene?

I was reading a few chapters in Isaiah over the weekend and the following stood out to me.

The LORD looked and was displeased
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one,
he was appalled that there was no one to intervene;

God was displeased with injustice but appalled that no one would intervene. How important it is for us to intervene when we see injustice. So often we can be "asleep in the light".

Seeing the potential in others

I have been preparing to share at a youth leaders retreat this weekend and God has reminded me of something I had forgotten. When I was 14 I did a personality profile and one of the traits that came out somewhere in the middle was leadership. At that stage I couldn't really see myself having any leadership gifting. One of the older ladies in the church who was organizing the profiling simply said "I can see some leadership in you!" At a time when I wouldn't dare to believe in myself, she believed in me! At that stage I was far from being a leader but she saw a glimmer of potential and spoke prophetically too it. Now many years later I am going to be speaking to a group of leaders and encouraging them to see the potential in their young people, it is amazing how God works and who he uses!

A different form of tax cut

With it being election year pressure is again coming on the government to cut taxes. I think a great way of offering a tax cut would be to give rebates on private health care insurance premiums. Currently the rebates system allows for donations and childcare/housekeeper and is one of the simplest and most efficient ways for the government to refund money. Surely we should be willing to give some encouragement to those who choose to have private health insurance as it eases the burden on the public system. An often used argument against tax cuts is they only benefit the rich, well here is one that would benefit the middle class and rich (as they are generally the ones who can afford health insurance) but also benefit the poor as if more people go private it frees public health resources. Obviously the amount you could get back would be capped. What's more as the government is only giving a 1/3 of the amount back it could well pay for itself with the savings!

Why Christians shouldn't wife swap!!

I watched a tv show I had never watched the other night, it was called 'trading spouses' it is where they get two wives to swap families and they have to live the other persons life and look after their family. This particular edition had a Christian swapping with a Jew (not that Christianity and being a Jew are mutually exclusive!). The result was absolute cringe, I could not sit through the full hour as the Christian mom shared how she was going to 'bless the socks off' the other family and then proceeded to wake up teenagers on a weekend by singing "rise and shine and give God the glory glory" ARGGGHHHHHHH the ultimate cringe.
CHRISTIANS SHOULD NOT WIFE SWAP !!!

When is a marriage not a marriage?

When your spouse is under 25 and you are applying for the student allowance!! I am about to start studying and have been told that the Student Allowance people will not recognise my relationship as my wife is under 25. Was I offended? NO!! Given that it means I can claim full student allowance while my wife works full time. They may not recognise my relationship but I am sure I can still call her my wah :-)