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Speaker 1: Heather Do for clan what it seems that Inland Revenue

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Speaker 1: is finally cracking down on kiwis who now live overseas

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Speaker 1: but aren't paying their student loans back. IRD has doubled

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Speaker 1: the size of its crackdown team and it's giving names

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Speaker 1: to debt collectors in Australia to get the dollars back.

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Speaker 1: Andrew Scott is the project lead at ID for this

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Speaker 1: and he is with us. Hey Andrew, hey, he right. Well,

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Speaker 1: now that you've started handing over names to debt collectors

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Speaker 1: and cracking down, how what proportion of these people are

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Speaker 1: actually paying the money back?

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Speaker 2: So we provided names to our Australian deck collectors, seven

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Speaker 2: thousand of them earlier this year. So far a thousand

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Speaker 2: of those have paid their debts, either in full or

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Speaker 2: in part. So that's pretty good going so far.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, And why I think one of the most interesting

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Speaker 1: things that you're going to do is if the debt

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Speaker 1: is big enough and the person has been tardy enough,

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Speaker 1: if they come back to New Zealand for whatever reason,

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Speaker 1: and you guys get a hold of them, you will

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Speaker 1: arrest them and they will not be able to leave

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Speaker 1: the country. Is that right?

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Speaker 2: I guess there's two things there. There's about one hundred

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Speaker 2: and fifty people who yet we'd look when they come

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Speaker 2: back to New Zealand be putting out a warrant for

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Speaker 2: the arrest, which means if they then tried to leave

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Speaker 2: the country, they'd be stopped. That's the extreme side. On

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Speaker 2: the other side, anybody who comes back to New Zealand

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Speaker 2: where they owe a thousand dollars or more outstanding will

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Speaker 2: be trying to get in contact with them.

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Speaker 1: So how big does the dead have to be for

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Speaker 1: you guys, to arrest someone.

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Speaker 2: It's not really about the size of the debt, although

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Speaker 2: we're talking between tens of thousands up to over one

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Speaker 2: hundred thousand. It's really about whether they're engaging with us

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Speaker 2: or not. So if they're just ignoring all of our communications,

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Speaker 2: or they're leaving us no way to get in touch

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Speaker 2: with them, then that's our last resort.

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Speaker 1: How do you stop them from leaving the country again?

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Speaker 1: Do you cancel their ability to leave? Yeah?

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Speaker 2: Essentially, they turn up at the airport and when they

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Speaker 2: go to check in, the arresting officer is called.

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Speaker 1: And then in order to be able to leave again,

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Speaker 1: would they have to assure you that they are going

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Speaker 1: to start paying the money back.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, we'd have a negotiation about how they're going to

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Speaker 2: handle their debt, and that might mean an immediate part

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Speaker 2: payment or some agreement that gives us confidence for that stuff.

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Speaker 1: Good on you. How much of this money two point

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Speaker 1: two these guys living overseas O two point two billion dollars,

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Speaker 1: How much of it do you reckon you can actually

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Speaker 1: realistically get back.

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Speaker 2: One of the things that people don't really know is

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Speaker 2: it's not twenty year old students who over this money

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Speaker 2: really for forty thousand. To the people, there's one hundred

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Speaker 2: and ten thousand borowers overseas are for forty thousand, of

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Speaker 2: them more than they've had their loan for more than

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Speaker 2: twenty years. Ia Duly fifties, late forties. They've been ignoring

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Speaker 2: it for a long time. But we've got no ability

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Speaker 2: to write any of that off. So we're ramping up

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Speaker 2: our activities to find them, compel them, and be shops

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Speaker 2: when they return.

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Speaker 1: Good stuff, Andrew, best of luck, Love it, Andrew Scott

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Speaker 1: Iady project lead.

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Speaker 2: For more from Heather Duplessy Alan Drive listen live to

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