Now is the time for students to get loud. The budget decisions that will affect the 2005 election year lolly scramble will be made this year. The government poll rating is starting to look shaky for the first time. Students have become important again.

So the NZUSA petition for a universal student allowance is well timed. A coordinated campaign to raise awareness in the community about student hardship must be part of the strategy, and student unions look set to make that happen.

The biggest obstacle to progress on student loans, however, remains student disbelief. Most students cannot remember the virtually free tertiary education that I and many other MPs enjoyed through the 1980's. Those that recall it often seem to think it is no longer affordable.

The Green Party says that a universal student living allowance is not only affordable, but crucial. The only question is what priority the government chooses to give it.

Having just finished an O-Week tour of the campuses along with my fellow Green MP Metiria Turei, I am excited by the growing level of student political participation on the campuses. While many students seem to have resigned themselves to a few decades of debt as a consequence of their tertiary education, more and more see the possibility of change.

That optimism is what will bring victory. The increased student activism of the past few years is paying off with a core of student leaders who are experienced and determined, and an increasing number of students willing to take some steps to create change. This is the year to springboard off that and put student demands on the government agenda.

This year student debt is set to exceed $7 billion. That's a mortgage on the nation's future, outstripping our national income from international tourism. At the same time the government surplus topped $4 billion last year. The money is buried where the government's head seems to be - in the sand - because that surplus is going nowhere.

This is not just a student problem. This is long term debt - 28 years for females and 15 years for males for the average three-year degree. It will affect your spending power for the next two or three decades. It's the equivalent of paying an extra ten per cent tax for, on average, twenty years. Combined with regular income tax, that represents about 40 per cent of your income. So much for saving money, goodbye to buying a house for another ten years, sayonara to a comfortable retirement and having children can wait... and wait.

The spending power of more than a generation of New Zealanders has been slashed by successive Governments who lack the foresight to realise the consequences. All New Zealanders suffer the results of the scheme. It is important that students draw the connections for them.

Get involved in this campaign. Make sure your parents are aware of the hardships students face and get them involved in the campaign as well. A concerted campaign by parents standing in support of their children would have the Labour government refocusing its priorities in no time. Getting parents to write to their local MP, explaining to your local councillors how student debt affects spending in local businesses, making employers aware of the loss of graduates overseas, these are all ways of increasing community awareness about the student loan scheme. Students need to build allies in the community so when Steve Maharey and Michael Cullen sit down to write up the tertiary budget for this year and beyond, they are sick of hearing about student debt from their constituents and their fellow MPs.

So support the NZUSA petition (available through your student association offices) calling for a reintroduction of a universal student allowance so all students can receive a living allowance comparable to the benefit. Take it around home, work, playcentre or whatever. It's a good opportunity to discuss the loans scheme with non-students. Don't leave it to the student unions leadership. Change will not happen without you.

Do you think the govt should give tertiary student's a living allowance? Does the benefit outweigh the cost?
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