I found a student flat this morning where everyone in the flat was awake before eight o’clock. Which was very useful. Because it's been a long time since I was in my early 20s, and I wanted to run National’s idea of paying off student loans to keep nurses and midwives in New Zealand after their study and training, past people who are studying right now.

And they made a very interesting point, which I’ll get to shortly.

But first: the gist of what Christopher Luxon announced yesterday is that if National forms the next government, it will take a maximum of $22,000 off a nurse or midwife’s student loan if they stay and work for five years after graduating - instead of taking off straight away and heading overseas.

Now A. I’ve never been to university. And B. I’ve never been in the military. But I seem to recall that this thing National is talking about for nurses and midwives has been done by the military for quite a while.

Because outfits like the air force put people through university and, if you do that, generally you have to stay in the air force for a certain period of time after you graduate. And don’t just rush off and earn the mega bucks working as an air traffic controller.

And I know that the Navy has a scholarship programme and that can require people to stay for a certain period of time after they graduate, because the Navy’s paid for someone to go to university and wants to get something in return for its investment..

So the idea is not a new one. And the National Party thinks it could work in the health sector.

Because, as we know, we are short of about 4,000 nurses here in New Zealand.

Some of that will be associated with the vaccine mandates. In fact, back in August last year National said it thought the mandates in the health sector should go so that unvaccinated nurses and midwives could go back to work and help reduce that shortage.

Now it’s banging a different drum and thinks offering new midwives and nurses the chance to stay in New Zealand for five years and have some of their student loan wiped could be the answer.

And, on paper, it sounds like it could work. Doesn’t it?

But then, what would I know? Because, as I say, I’ve never been to university so I don’t know what it’s like to have a student loan hanging over you. And also, while an idea like National's might sound attractive to me - what about the people this policy is aimed at?

That’s where my phone call to a student flat comes into it.

Because I wanted to find out what a bunch of 20-year-olds thought. And, initially, they liked National’s idea.

But then they thought about it a bit more and they started talking about the students they know who have already clocked-up $40,000 on the student loan and counting, and they started to think that National’s $22,000 might not be such a game changer, after all.

And then they started talking about all the students they know who have gone to university over the last two or three years because they haven’t been able to go overseas. These are the ones who are going to be graduating if National wins in October and gets the chance to implement this policy.

And so my student focus group came to the pretty quick conclusion that what National is proposing wouldn’t be enough to keep them here.

The reasons being that most students would still be in debt after doing their five years service. And, after the limitations on travel during the past three years because of Covid, most students are just going to want to get out of here when they finish their studies. Which is going to be challenging isn’t it for a whole lot of sectors - not just health.

So I think National’s barking up the wrong tree here. And that’s not just on the basis of what the students I spoke with this morning said. But also remembering that nurses in the public health sector in this country feel completely undervalued.

They’ve been marching on the streets over the last few weeks and then going back to work in what would have to be some of the most challenging working environments in the country.

Do you really think a new graduate is going to stick that out for five years just to have a bit of the student loan paid off?

Of course they’re not. And, instead of talking about writing-off student debt, National should be talking about paying nurses and midwives more.

Because, until our nurses and midwives feel the love and start getting paid what they’re worth, nothing is going to change.