All power to IRD

Stuff reports:

A doctor who was arrested at Wellington Airport on his way home to Australia, had his passport confiscated and was held in custody for three nights, has been allowed to return to Sydney after negotiating a deal with the Inland Revenue Department (IRD) over a $180,000 student loan debt.

Vic, who had returned to New Zealand in late May to visit his ailing father, was the 15th student loan defaulter arrested at the border in the past decade.

He and his brother Bob* owed almost half a million dollars in unpaid student loans, interest and penalties between them. …

“The IRD are treating me as the Ned Kelly of student loans, but I haven’t killed anyone,” says Vic. “In fact, I spend my working life trying to help people.”

Vic was 23 when he took out his loan; it was the first year of the scheme, he borrowed $20,000 to finish his medical degree, and then “life unfolded, both good and bad”.

I have no sympathy for Vic. He is not a lowly paid charity worker. He is a medical specialist ion Australia. The average income for a surgeon in Australia is almost A$400,000. He has been working for 30 years as a specialist and could have paid his loan off decades ago. He chose not to.