Student loan defaulters living across the Tasman have been warned, Tertiary Education Minister Steven Joyce has little sympathy for you if you can afford to pay back your loans but choose not to.
Inland revenue has tracked down more than 10,000 borrowers through an information exchange agreement involving an initial 100,000 names with the Australian Tax Office and is now coming after those in default.
Mr Joyce said hardship processes existed for people unable to pay back their loans, but "with the greatest respect I don't have too much sympathy for somebody who has owed the money, has the money and is now complaining that they have to pay".
The campaign has brought in $300 million since it was introduced in around 2010, and is now seeing $100m a year returned to the government.
On top of that is the people who have heard about the campaign and have started paying back their loans on their own, Mr Joyce said.
"Now with another 10,000 addresses we're getting to the point where many, many people in Australia who probably thought if they just kept their heads down they'd be fine are going to get contacted by the New Zealand IRD and my recommendation to them would be to step up before the IRD gives you a call."
Mr Joyce says the amount in default was just over $1 billion at the end of June with more than 90 per cent owed by borrowers living overseas, although they make up only 15 per cent of the total borrower population.
He says a "significant majority" of overseas-based borrowers are believed to be living in Australia.
