If National is looking for an excuse to get out of paying for Labour’s dumb free year of university, they may have just got it.

The Tertiary Education Commission has admitted that the first year free of tertiary study has led to no discernible evidence that it increased the number of students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Which basically means it hasn’t worked, because that was the point of doing it.

That was why Jacinda said- "next year’s on us!". Because she wanted to help poorer and disadvantaged kids get into uni.

Obviously, it wasn't going to work, because it wasn’t needed. Because cost is not a barrier.

It is easy to go to uni and pay for it. You take a loan, there is no interest on that loan- and what you're borrowing is only a fraction of the actual cost, the rest is subsidised.

Kids who don’t go to uni have other - valid, in my opinion- reasons, maybe they want to work or they want to travel or they want to start a business or whatever.

All up, Labour’s vanity spend or student bribe - you decide - cost us $350 million in the year to June last year.

Now, Christopher Luxon said before the election that he was keeping it and instead switching it to the last year.

But he also said on Sunday this week that the economy is in a fragile state and there are tough decisions that we need to make together.

• ‘No discernible evidence’ the previous Government’s fees-free scheme has improved uni participation from low socio-economic groups
• 'Tough love': Luxon paints 'rough' economic outlook amid massive infrastructure deficit

Let this be one of those tough decisions. Cut the spend.

It's a lot of money, which could be spent elsewhere to help people that actually need it- and it actually doesn’t help the people it's supposed to.

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