Shannan Halbert's Commentary

Very good. Um we found out on Friday, uh, because Winston Peters uh once again decided he would break some confidential cabinet only news because apparently Heather Duplicy Allen was just being too harsh with him, and he could not hold back any further. So he released uh a piece of information which was not supposed to come out until the budget uh came out, to which today um Mr. Luxon was like, Oh, it's fine, it's fine. No, it's it's fine, it's fine, it doesn't matter. It didn't really matter. No, it's fine, it's fine, don't worry about it. It's fine. Um, and uh Nicola Willis has been quizzed about it as well, and that is that the fees free scheme is being cancelled and uh canned. Um, and it is being canned for a couple of reasons. The the government don't quite have a narrative on it yet because uh Nicola Willis says it never achieved its goal. Uh Mr. Luxon says it was quite a failure. Uh Mr. Seymour, and we'll show you the video from the shortly, says it's because the government is under real financial pressure. So, you know, uh you decide which one of those things it really is, but the story overall of fees free being disestablished is what we want to talk about. So we are going to welcome the spokesperson for tertiary education from the Labour Party, Shannon Halbert. Shannon, Kelda, good evening to you.