More ammo in the battle against Kiwis in Australia skipping out on paying back their student loans.
They're responsible for $1.2 billion of student loan debt - $430 million of that is default debt.
Revenue Minister Michael Woodhouse told Rachel Smalley the hardest thing has always been finding out exactly where the defaulters are.
He said they've now tracked down a "significant" number of them.
"We'll be contacting those people, and hopefully coming to an arrangement with them where they can contribute to their outstanding loans," he said. "If they don't, obviously there's a range of enforcement actions that can be considered.
"There's debt collection processes that can be put in place, and obviously the judgements can be entered and the court system can be used - clearly we don't want to do that."
LISTEN ABOVE AS REVENUE MINISTER MICHAEL WOODHOUSE SPEAKS WITH RACHEL SMALLEY
However, New Zealand Union of Students' Association president Linsey Higgins said under the current system it's tricky for those living overseas to make repayments.
"We think that when the mechanism becomes a problem, the mechanism needs to be looked at," she said.
She said she is constantly hearing how difficult it is for people to make the repayments.
"The increasing changes to the student loan scheme, especially for overseas-based borrowers, has made it really hard for them to meet those commitments."
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