It’s called a deterrent

Stuff reports:

Five years of arrests and court proceedings have recovered less than $230,000 in overdue student loan debt.

Arrest warrants and Australian court cases pursued by Inland Revenue in the last five years have recovered a fraction of student debt, figures released under the Official Information Act show.

Of course few people actually get prosecuted. It would be a very inefficient way to recover debt.

Minister of Revenue Judith Collins said arrests at the border were a “strong deterrent” to anyone seeking to ignore their debt.

Compliance initiatives enacted in 2010 helped Inland Revenue recoup $400 million “it would not have otherwise collected”.

Exactly. It only takes a few arrests for many students who were non compliant to decide they don’t want to risk the same happening to them.

In fact the policy has been a huge success – $400 million for half a dozen prosecutions.