Labour Party leader Helen Clark is defending the cost of its new tertiary student allowance policy, after National criticised it as too expensive.
Miss Clark announced on Monday the party would abolish parental income testing on student allowances by 2012.
Labour's policy has been costed at $210 million a year when fully implementated.
National believes it would cost too much given the forecast of years of deficits and that alongside Labour's other policies it is unaffordable.
Deputy leader Bill English said on Monday that given the state of the Government's books, which are showing a "sea of red ink", the announcement of a universal student allowance has a "sense of unreality about it."
Miss Clark insisted Labour has been a responsible manager of the economy, and puts the current challenges down to international influences.
She said on Tuesday the economic restraints mean the full policy would not be introduced immediately, as she would have liked.
National says it will announce its own policy affecting student allowances in due course, but it will not be a universal scheme
