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
  - lifesgood
    
    Why give them a choice? Nuggets and chips are very unhealthy. Bad eating habits being developed.
    
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    July 1, 2026 8:37am
  - 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
    - R
      
      The other mantra was. …’you will sit there until you have finished that meal’. !!!
      
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      July 1, 2026 9:15am
  - 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
  - imalwaysright
    
    Have dinner at 10 pm.
    Everything tastes good when you’re hungry.
    
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    July 1, 2026 9:06am
  - lastmanstanding
    
    Those who dont feed their kids are guilty of child abuse. No excuses. We have an adequate welfare system in fact IMHO far to adequate to have any excuses for kids not going to school with a lunch from home. It wasnt a problem in the past. Its down to lazy feckless so called parents and care givers. The more you do for them the more they expect. Next the Govenment will be provider arse wipers for them.
    
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    July 1, 2026 9:23am
- imalwaysright
  
  “Principal Phil Palfrey, Kaitao Intermediate in Rotorua, was unrelentingly negative. He told us about the waste there. He said 40% to 50% go uneaten.”
  
  If 40% go uneaten then he should reduce his order by 40%.
  
  It is he who is causing the waste.
  
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  July 1, 2026 8:53am
- 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
  - R
    
    Isn’t the provision of nutritious meals a PARENTAL RESPINSIBILITY. After all the parents, not the general TAXPAYER, bought the child(ren?) into the world. I’m assuming that these are motivated net tax paying parents who care.
    
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    July 1, 2026 9:19am
- 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
  - R
    
    RobRob…politically, do you really believe that the MSM would support a ‘scrap this socialist school meals’ policy? in an election year
    
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    July 1, 2026 9:22am
Pope Punctilious II

Usman Koala throws his weight behind a campaign against “Islamophobia” https://share.google/fW9kmYp13Htu5nEUm
Two suggestions about how Usman can help reduce “Islamophobia”:
(1) By keeping his mouth shut;
(2) By having the chip on his shoulder surgically removed.
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July 1, 2026 8:19am
imalwaysright

Michael Laws to Winston Peters on the Platform this morning:

“We have 400,000 New Zealanders on the Jobseeker benefit. Are we trying to solve a welfare problem with immigration?

Peters: “Yes.
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July 1, 2026 8:25am
Im Right

Ughhh school lunches, the perfect nutritional lunch would not be eaten by most kids, a good example is Jamie Oliver who campaigned for more nutritional.meals in the UK, it nearly broke his spirit when he was cooking in schools to see his ‘nutritional’ and ‘tasty’ meals were mainly untouched and the pizza/chips/cheap sausages were the winners.
Kids are fickle, and the sight of something that is good for them (veges, nothing deep fried etc etc) just won’t be eaten as it’s generally NOT the kind of food they get at home.
It’s a sad state of affairs, but it will always be a losing battle in feeding kids in schools.
The NZ principle said some kids buy a pie for their lunch at local dairy or bakery, he seems to believe it’s because the lunches are inedible, IMHO that’s BS, even if the meals were ‘tasty’, a kid would rather have a pie with their mates!
That sums it all up really.
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July 1, 2026 8:30am
lifesgood

What is wrong with marmite sandwiches, a small packet of raisins, an apple or banana? That’s what my kids had, sometimes peanut butter before being allergic to peanuts became a thing. If kids are hungry they would eat that, if they are buying food on the way to school they have useless parents. Why should the tax payer feed their kids? My children and grandchildren made their own lunches from the age of 7.
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July 1, 2026 8:36am
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
    - lastmanstanding
      
      Its clear to me TOP are a branch of the Labour Party. A former Labour Party MP is CoS and Chippies missus have a senior position with TOP. Labour are hoping TOP get over the 5% to provide them with some support to counter the Greens even more made cap policies.
      
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      July 1, 2026 9:26am
Southern Raider

Last night OneNews ran a story by their Maori reporter about influencers trying to convince Maori to split their votes by electing TPM candidates in electorates and giving party votes to Greens or Labour to create a 2 seat overhang.

I couldn’t work out whether TVNZ was running the story to show the folly of this idea or actually subtly promoting it.
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July 1, 2026 8:42am
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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