Perspective with Heather du Plessis-Allan: Who feels sorry for the doctor arrested over student loan debt?

Right, hands up — who felt sorry for the doctor arrested at the border for not paying back his student loan? So the details are: this chap owes almost $180,000. Yes, he admits he should have responded to IRD on the multiple occasions they tried to contact him — but he didn’t. And he says he didn’t realise how much money he owed until just recently. Now he’s in a terrible situation because he’s stuck in New Zealand. The authorities have taken his passport and he can’t leave unless he ponies up some money. He’s also got no income while he’s here so he’s had to cancel some eye surgeries and shoulder surgeries. Yes, it sounds like he’s a surgeon — which means, no, he’s not exactly on the bones of his arse, is he? Feel sorry for him? Nah. Of course you don’t — me neither. In fact, I’m going to admit something to you, which is not very nice of me: I take a perverse pleasure in hearing about people like this getting caught at the border and forced to pay up. And yes, even though it’s “only” $180,000 — small beer in terms of what the country deals with — every one of those dollars feels like a win to me because of what it represents. People like this doctor are the epitome of taking this country for a ride. He knew he should pay his student loan back. I knew I should have paid mine back. We all knew it. Most of us did. But some went overseas and thought they could come and go from New Zealand whenever they liked, with no repercussions and never have to pay the money back. Well, this is a come-to-Jesus moment for people like that. It’s changed in New Zealand. We’re not gentle parenting anymore — we’re practising FAFO. You know what that is? F around and find out. And it’s working. There’s one lawyer in this country who reckons he’s doing so much work on student loan cases alone that he’s had to stop taking on other work. That’s how many people he’s helping clean up this kind of mess. He says he’s dealt with more than 300 cases, accounting for around $25 million owed to New Zealand — and he’s already managed to recover $7 million of it. Good. Am I sorry for the doctor — and everyone else in the same situation? Absolutely not. LISTEN ABOVESee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.