Just prior to last month’s Budget the government announced that it was scrapping funding of the fees for students in their final year of study, saying that the scheme had to be rethought. May’s Budget did fund new places in trades training academies but offered no new funding for aspiring tertiary students. In an interview for the Otago Daily Times weekly on-line politics feature Election 2026, Ms Simmonds did not rule out the government funding some new method of incentivising higher education. “I think it
needs to be thought through differently, which is why I am reviewing the funding system for tertiary education,” the Invercargill National MP said. “I think we need to look at where we are best to be training in the workplace, where we are best to be training for areas that we have big skill shortages. For example, in veterinary training, we know that Massey loses money on every vet that they train and yet we’re short of about 5000 vets and we are spending money
trying to bring them from overseas. Before becoming a politician Ms Simmonds was chief executive of SIT, which famously based its success on a Zero Fees programme. That was a community initiative and had cost in the millions, Ms Simmonds said, while the government funded fee free scheme had cost a $1 billion over the period it had been in force. “It has not moved the dial. It has not put more people into tertiary education. It has not increased the numbers that come from
under represented populations. So it hasn’t increased the number of school leavers from low socioeconomic decile schools. It hasn’t increased the number dramatically of Māori and Pacifica. “So if that was the objective, then it hasn’t done that and it’s a heck of a lot of money, a billion dollars to spend on a policy that hasn’t achieved its objectives by and large.”
Simmonds, Invercargill, National MP, tertiary education funding, fee support, final-year students, May’s Budget, trades training academies, skills shortages, veterinary training, Massey, SIT, Zero Fees programme, Māori and Pacifica, under represented populations, Otago Daily Times Election 2026