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Speaker 1: Surprise, surprise, Labour's fees free wasn't all it was supposed

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Speaker 1: to be. New numbers out this morning show just two

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Speaker 1: hundred and thirty students from the most disadvantaged schools in

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Speaker 1: New Zealand used it By twenty twenty four. Seventy percent

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Speaker 1: of the users came from above average socioeconomic backgrounds. The

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Speaker 1: Ministry of Educations admitted that fees weren't a major barrier. Actually,

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Speaker 1: to start with, Aidan Donahue is a Vieuwser Vice president

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Speaker 1: joining us this morning.

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Speaker 2: Hey, Aiden, good morning.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't well, it's been a bit of a failure

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Speaker 1: in terms of what it's set out to do right.

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Speaker 2: In the terms of addressing the disparities between socioeconomic from backgrounds. Then, yeah,

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Speaker 2: it's been tough going for that one.

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Speaker 1: So does it work now because coalitions come in and

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Speaker 1: they've changed it from the first year to the last year.

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Speaker 1: The idea is that it will help students or encourage

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Speaker 1: them to finish their degrees, finish their studies. Does that

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Speaker 1: actually stack up either, Not.

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Speaker 2: Really, as the real issue is not where the weathers

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Speaker 2: students will be paying more or less debt off at

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Speaker 2: the end, but rather how much money they have to

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Speaker 2: play with during the week to week. And that's really

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Speaker 2: the decision or key decision for students whether or not

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Speaker 2: they actually go to university or work full time.

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Speaker 1: Do you do many students work full time and go

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Speaker 1: to university.

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Speaker 2: No, they don't work full time or go to university,

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Speaker 2: but many of them do work up the twenty hours.

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Speaker 2: But even if you work twenty hours and got the

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Speaker 2: maximum amount of living costs and you're working at minimum wage,

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Speaker 2: you'd still be one hundred and fifty dollars worse off

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Speaker 2: than if you just work full time at minimum wage.

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Speaker 1: The reason I'm asking is that do you think students

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Speaker 1: could be working more on the side while they're studying

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Speaker 1: in order to fund the living costs and then you

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Speaker 1: chuck the fees onto the student loan and you pay

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Speaker 1: that down once you've got a full time gig.

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Speaker 2: I don't believe students could work more than say the

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Speaker 2: sixty hour weeks. Studying should be a full time job

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Speaker 2: if we really want to get the best out of

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Speaker 2: our tertiary students and they really engage with the material,

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Speaker 2: and we really get a written on investment, really good

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Speaker 2: educated workforce at the end, at the end of the road.

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Speaker 1: Is it frustrating when politicians have these great hair brained

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Speaker 1: ideas and they don't work and they cost us. I

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Speaker 1: think this one is two point six billion dollars something

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Speaker 1: like that, and then everyone goes, oh, well that was

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Speaker 1: a waste of money. They didn't need it. You know,

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Speaker 1: it sort of undermines any you know, you might want

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Speaker 1: funding for something else that might work, kind of undermines that,

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Speaker 1: doesn't it.

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Speaker 2: It is tough. It's always a question of decisions. The

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Speaker 2: money still goes towards the universities so that it isn't

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Speaker 2: just going off to the ether, But ultimately you would

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Speaker 2: like to see that sort of money go towards allowing

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Speaker 2: more students more flexibility with their options.

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Speaker 1: All right, Aid and appreciate your time this morning. Thanks

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Speaker 1: for being with me. Aiden Donahue is the views of

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Speaker 1: vice president. That's the Victoria University Students Association. For more

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