Craighead Diocesan School invited the Rangitata Candidates along to speak to the girls who are looking to vote for their first time in the coming election. Around a dozen girls and a few teachers gathered in the library and I decided to run our tertiary education policy past them and to get them thinking about life after school.
Here's my opening address:
I'd like to extend a big thanks for being invited here, to speak alongside my fellow candidates. Jo and Julian have been visiting schools up and down the electorate, but Craighead is the first school to invite all of the candidates to speak.
And that says a lot about the people who've organised this meeting today. It says that they get Democracy. It also says that they believe in the same core principles that United Future does; the principles of fairness and choice.
And it's great to see you all here today, taking an interest in your Country's future.
My party, United Future, is a modern centrist party. In terms of the political spectrum, that means that we support mainstream policies. We can work with both the main parties and have demonstrated this by being in Government for the last three terms. In contrast, the Green Party have never found enough common ground with Labour to form a coalition, yet alone National, who they're at complete odds with.
The media have discredited United Future as a political force, but the reality is we play an important role in offering the main parties a stable coalition partner. We're constructive and we get work done. The stronger we get, the more stable Government gets.
In terms of policy, I'd like to touch on tertiary education.
If you talk to any student in tertiary training, you'll find the cost of education and the size of their burgeoning student loans are first and foremost in their minds. Students feel crippled and powerless at a time when they should be setting their sights on conquering the world before them.
United Future brings fairness and choice to tertiary policy, and it's a game changer. We're proposing to abolish the student allowances scheme, which students rightly claim is unfair. We'd transfer that funding towards providing a zero fees model, with the current student loan scheme being retained for supporting living costs.
United Future's zero fees policy has been costed to be on par with providing a universal student allowance. And for the same cost we can deliver a much fairer education system.
So why change? The problem with National's policy is that it doesn't do enough to address the cost of education and the country's growing mountain of student debt.
Labour's policy doesn't do any more for students than National's policy will. Their move to re-instate compulsorily student union membership is a move in the wrong direction. At United Future we believe that students deserve to have the choice in whether they belong to a union.
The zero fees policy is a game changer for students. With no fees, students only need to worry about course related materials and living costs. For living costs, students would be able to borrow up to today's maximum of $170 per week. This equates to the total cost for an undergraduate degree of around $20,000, where a student is borrowing the maximum for living costs. United Future's zero fees policy should represent a substantial saving for students.
With the current system, many students treat minimum student loan repayments as a tax for life, with any outstanding debt being written off at death. With United Future's policy debt will be more manageable for students, which should also result in fewer students leaving the country in an attempt to ditch their debt.
Our region will benefit far more from United Future's zero fees policy than Labours push for adult education. Our policy makes institutions equal on cost, which means that for a student, the main costs to weigh up will be accommodation costs. This is likely to lead to more students studying in our region.
When I was at high school, I used to love guest speakers. They'd impart some of their knowledge and leave me inspired to strive for success.
Some people ask me why am I standing and what chance I have in this election. I tell them I'm standing because I love politics and I've found a party that needs my support. And I'll stand regardless of what chance I have of winning, because I believe in your lesson number one: You have to be prepared to fail if you want to succeed; and you have to be able to handle failure if you want to go on to greater things.
As you finish high school and move into the next phase of your life, all of a sudden you have to start making some big life choices. You're no longer being told what to do, because by now you're expected to be able to work that bit out yourself. It takes some of us longer than others, but eventually we all come to realise lesson number two: You have to find your own path in life. If you stick to what you love, challenge yourself, keep your friends and family close then you won't go far wrong.
And if you really want to have a successful and rewarding life then you need to embrace lesson number three: Never give up learning. I'm not talking about study, but of questioning what you believe in. To truly learn you need to challenge your beliefs and the lessons that have been handed down. If they don't stack up then you have to be brave enough to challenge them, to find a new understanding.
Finally and most importantly, life is about living. You'll face struggles and tribulations, but if you can leave some room, for compassion in your heart, then everyone will be better off for it.
Thank you very much.
For further information on United Future and our policies, go to the United Future web site:
www.unitedfuture.org.nz