The coalition government’s free school lunch programme has faced significant criticism from various groups and individuals.
This follows the remodelling of the previous programme, the Ka Ora Ka Ako programme, to, in what ACT Party Leader David Seymour says, save taxpayers over $100 million and fix food wastage.
However, this current model has resulted lunches arriving significantly late, plastic having been found melted into food, and students describing the food as “bland,” and looking like “prison food”.
Responding to the criticisms facing the current model of the free school lunch programme, in an interview with Newstalk ZB, Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon, says those complaining should “make a Marmite sandwich and put an apple in the bag.”
For our first weekly catch with Te Pāti Māori for the year, News and Editorial Director and Monday Wire Host, Joel, spoke to Takutai Kemp about how she is viewing the lunch programme, and her opinions on Luxon’s recent remarks regarding the model.
We also spoke about the Land Transport Management (Time of Use Charging) Amendment Bill first reading in Parliament, and Te Pāti Māori being the only party not to support the Bill, and the changes to free bowel cancer screenings by changing the age from 60 to 58, which would result in scrapping the pilot programme that would have allowed Māori and Pacific people free screenings from age 50.
But first, they started off by asking her about how the party is feeling about the current state of the government’s free school lunch programme.
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