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Critic caught up with MP Hughes while he was down in Dunedin. No, not that Hughes, the other one – Green MP Gareth Hughes.
What are you down in Dunedin to talk to students about?
My talk tonight is called “Unfuck the world: cheer up, the future is bright.” 
Ah right, did you come up with that title?
Yep. I’m surveying a whole bunch of issues, from climate change to peak oil, to the crisis in the ocean to species extinction, and saying “look let’s not get too down, there are solutions for all of them so cheer up!” At the moment there’s this weird sense all around the country with the nuclear disaster in Japan, the earthquakes in Christchurch, the recession, the war in Libya. It’s all overwhelming and people are walking around a bit dazed. So I wanted to do something optimistic, but also big picture, linking all these issues together.
What can students do as part of this cause?
I’m looking at the policy things we could do, but ultimately the rub is that leadership isn’t going to come from politicians. Every major change in our history has come from the bottom up, from small groups of people in their communities. I come from a non-violent direct action background of Greenpeace, so I think if students want to go get arrested, if they’re doing it smart as part of a campaign, with the best of intentions, it’s really cool. Non-violent direct action has an honourable tradition in New Zealand, from the suffragettes to hari haka, to nuclear-free New Zealand. So even though I can’t break the law anymore now that I’m a lawmaker, if students want to do that, and do it smart, it’s great.
With the talk tonight, I finish off talking about MMP because our electoral system is under attack. One of the most important things you can do 2011 is to get political; make sure you enrol, make sure you vote, and make sure you vote to keep MMP. I first got to vote in 1999, my last year of high school, and that was the year Nandor [Tanczos] got in, Sue Bradford, not just these old white guys in suits. They were people talking about stuff I was interested in, so MMP has made sure our parliament has more Maori, more young people, more gays. It’s more representative of who we are. That’s at risk if we get rid of MMP.
As Green Party Spokesperson for Youth, what do you see as issues facing our youth at the moment?
There are heaps of issues at the moment, youth unemployment would be the big one. 15 to 19-year olds have a 25% youth unemployment rate.
Also as Tertiary Education Spokesperson, university at the moment is becoming less affordable and less accessible with universities capping enrolments and shutting the doors. I think our university system is based on an egalitarian principle: if you want to study, you are able to. The government is looking at the short-term fiscal implications and cutting the tertiary education budget, but long term that’s dumb for the economy. Coming out of a recession we want more people skilled and educated. And that’s how we’re going to have a prosperous economy.
On the Green’s policy of bringing in a universal student allowance - how do you propose to make this work?
It’s an investment in our people. It’s not a waste of money like the $11 billion the government is spending on motorways. At the moment some students are borrowing to live, which I think is unacceptable. I’ve got a massive student loan over my head and so do most of my mates. We just can’t possibly even think about owning a house one day because we’ve got this giant loan, overdrafts, credit cards from studying.
What are your thoughts on the government’s proposal to put interest back on student loans to help pay for the damage suffered by Christchurch?
It’s not fair to put the cost of the rebuild onto students. Why should one pretty marginal and vulnerable sector pay the cost? So what we’re talking about is a 1% levy, which is fair, transparent and progressive. So the more you earn the more you pay. It also takes the politics out of it; the government is picking who to unfund and cut but this way everyone shares the burden.
And your proposal to cap fees at $1500 per year for university students?
GH: It’s up to us to decide how we fund our tertiary education sector. Steven Joyce says over and over how generous we are in New Zealand to our students. He’s doing a bit of dodgy maths with that, because he’s not considering the fact that all of the student loan goes directly to the institutions. Whereas other countries fund the institutions directly, we go through our student loans; that’s not being overly generous. Obviously I don’t think you could do it tomorrow, you’d have to phase it in, but courses are going up and up and up and it’s hammering the whole generation, the 500,000 Kiwis with a student loan. People are staying in debt longer, and the student loans are a big reason for that.
Are these some of your key selling points for students looking towards the election this year?
We’re still working out what our top promise to take to this election will be, but this has been a long standing policy of the Green Party. We were pressuring Labour when they were in government to do it during the good economic weather.
Have people been confusing you with Darren Hughes in the last week?
Haha yeah, there have been a few people posting on my wife’s Facebook about that.