General Debate 01 July 2026

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artemisia

School lunches. Yet again. The Auditor General found about half of meals did not meet the nutritional requirements. Mr Seymour said put more veges in and fewer children want to eat them. Sounds about right.

Time to pull the plug if the experience of a principal interviewed by Ryan Bridge on NewstalkZB this morning (5.15 am)? Principal Phil Palfrey, Kaitao Intermediate in Rotorua, was unrelentingly negative. He told us about the waste there. He said 40% to 50% go uneaten. Kids are hungry but the food is ‘unappetising’ though fortunately some of them buy food from the local shop on the way to school. The principal has tried some of the lunches and says some were ‘absolutely horrible’ but some were ‘not too bad’ though he couldn’t say which they were. Or whether they had the correct amount of veges.

Mr Palfrey was asked by Ryan Bridge if he has seen any material change in academic performance at his school since free school lunches started. His answer – No.

Not to worry though as Auckland University’s Dr Kelly Garton, in this mornings news on NewstalkZB, says children who have ‘decent’ school lunches have higher levels of attainment’ so more money needed to, presumably, add more veges. Good luck with that, academia.

Something is wrong with this picture.
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July 1, 2026 8:11am
- Raphael
  
  Last night my wife was doing the cooking. a lovely and tasty beef stirfry.
  1 of my kids ate it, two others had chicken nuggets and chips, and 1 had a bowl of porridge (in her defence she is sick).
  The eldest is 19, the youngest 14. All girls.
  
  If as a parent I can’t get my kids to eat healthy, how would the government?
  
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  July 1, 2026 8:31am
  - pdm
    
    Then again the mantra that we boomers grew up with is well gone.
    
    `If you don’t eat what is on your plate you will get it for breakfast tomorrow morning.!!!’
    
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    July 1, 2026 8:45am
  - artemisia
    
    Heh, My Food Bag is well aware of kids and veges. Their recipes are heavy on the veges and have very sensible and specific instructions. Like the hidden vege trick, or separate rather than mix up, or chop finely….
    
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    July 1, 2026 8:54am
- Paulus
  
  What is wrong of course it is Election Year.
  I say scrap the whole thing if they believe it is so wrong and give responsibilities to Parents and Schools again.
  The unions love the so called 50% (a load of bullshit) figures but politically they want more power.
  Is not the whole deal a Ministry of Education (Marxist) responsibility ?
  
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  July 1, 2026 9:09am
- RoboRob
  
  Wrote a long post on this but lost it all when WordPress decided I wasn’t logged in, Arrgh.
  
  The short of it was.
  
  Most of the kids (90+%) dont need the lunches. If they did they wouldn’t have the cash to buy lunch from the shops on the way to school. If they were starving they would eat them regardless of how ‘bad’ they are.
  
  Apparently they are unhealthy. I would like the ‘experts’ to compare them to a parent provided sandwich, apple and biscuit style lunch. I suspect, they are more substantial. My wife says they are small portions, but if that’s an issue surely the school could give a hungry kid a second rather then throwing them out?
  
  The Act policy was right, scrap it. Their coalition partners didn’t have the stones to scrap it and so instead we had a year of media attacks. Now come election year it is again back on the agenda, with every media outlet running stories on how ‘Seymours lunches program is a failure’. This could have been scrapped in year one of this government but very poor political judgement has left it as an anchor on the government and ironically the ACT party.
  
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  July 1, 2026 9:12am
Tomtoddy

School lunches are an impossible concept. You cant give kids what they prefer because its not healthy – give them what is healthy and they will ignore it.

Throw in the politicised teachers and an anti media and you cant win. Seymour is on a hiding to nothing.
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July 1, 2026 8:40am
- pdm
  
  TT so true about Seymour being on a hiding to nothing.
  
  Then again he is one of very few Ministers in Cabinet who will front, take it on the chin and deal with it without backing down.
  
  The rest and especially most of the National Ministers in Cabinet will have backed down as soon as the going got a bit tough.
  
  Ah la Tama Potaka with the Conservation Legislation last week.
  
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  July 1, 2026 8:50am
  - RoboRob
    
    Of course Seymour was somewhat setup. He wanted to scrap the school lunches, that was Act policy. Instead National put him in charge of them.
    
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    July 1, 2026 9:01am
Gravelroad

https://www.stuff.co.nz/sport/360999859/mark-reason-new-zealands-team-real-men-humble-englands-ultra-egos
If you are interested in sport, read this (and even if you are not interested in sport, read this).
Mark Reason is usually not backward in coming forward to comment critically regarding NZ’s sporting achievements – especially about rugby.
Not this time.
It is a great tribute to NZ test cricket today.
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July 1, 2026 8:50am
- pdm
  
  Yes gravel.
  
  An excellent piece by Reason today.
  
  There are two or three similar articles on Stuff this morning and the Poms and Stokes in particular are copping it in all of the ones I read.
  
  Glowing praise for NZ though.
  
  Winners are grinners.
  
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  July 1, 2026 8:52am

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