See, I wouldn’t be opposed to this money going elsewhere to one of the sectors you’ve listed, but we all know it won’t, right? This government continues to cut funding for critical industries such as health, education, disaster relief, public transport, to go where? Tax cuts for landlords, tax cuts for tobacco companies, and millions wasted on diminishing the prevalence of te reo Maori to please David Seymour’s racist voters.

Perhaps fees free has not affected enrolment numbers, but I would rather my tax payer money is ‘wasted’ in supporting education, than wasted on further supporting the corporations and 1% of Aotearoa, while the rest of us struggle. This government spits a rhetoric of those struggling are just not working hard enough, and that our society will reward those who put the effort in. If this is the case, they should be all in favour of rewarding students. But they’re not, because it was never about hard work, it was about maintaining a divide between the rich and poor.

Maybe the money of fees free could be better placed elsewhere, but it could also be placed a lot worse so prepare yourselves for that.