National Party leader Bill English has slammed the Labour-led Government's Australian study retaliation threat as "irellevant", due to the disclosure students from across the ditch will be eligible to a year free study over here.
"New Zealanders are finding out that they're not just paying for lawyers and accountants to get through university cheaper, but for Australians to get a free year of tertiary study in New Zealand. I don't think that's what we call retaliation," Mr English said on TVNZ1's Breakfast this morning.
Australia currently has a policy stuck in the Senate to triple university fees for Kiwis studying across the Tasman, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying New Zealand would slap Australian students here with international fees if it did go ahead.
However, while that policy remains stalled, Australian students will be eligible for New Zealand's new tertiary policy which gives students one-free year of study.
"The government created the expectation there was going to be some kind of punishment for Australia, in fact they're getting a free gift of tertiary here," Mr English said.
"It is odd. The whole policy is odd."
"We're opposed to the policy, we just don't think it's a good way to spend half a billion dollars."
Mr English said he would imagine more students from Australia would come to New Zealand to make the most of the free study.
SHARE ME