17 Comments

Excellent article Tui. I don’t think I’m going to be able to shut up about this waste thing. The fact that Seymour used racism to claim that kids weren’t eating “unappealing” foods (when the ethnic foods like butter chicken were cited as the favourite in a very unofficial one news school yard poll) and then he serves up literal slop knowing that when people complain about the programme, people who are okay with kids going hungry will say they should just “eat what they’ve been given” is infuriating.

Seymour should be made to eat these school lunches every day. Someone should take one of these uneaten leftover containers of slop and drive it to parliament each morning for him to heat up at lunch.

It’s the only way he’ll ever admit what he’s done: rubbing his nose right in it like a naughty puppy.

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Thanks, Sapphi. There's a good photo of Seymour eating school lunches last year floating about too.

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No, we gotta shove his face full-on in it

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Thank you Tui for holding these guys to account.

Every member of the government tells an initial lie and then slowly modifies it. It doesn't matter what the topic is. The public only remembers the lie. In this case, the public were told by Seymour, that school lunches would be more like what every other kid gets from home, sandwiches, fruit and a muesli bar, rather than a hot meal or "woke" sushi. Except he's delivering disgusting brown mush, in tiny quantities, with zero nutritional value. Has everyone forgotten the promise of sandwiches and fruit?

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According to my test case, many Coalition supporters don't care because "stop breeding", "bring your own lunch," "stop whining about free food" and "I'm sick of supporting loser beneficiaries".

Also there are a number of ACT affiliated groups and forums which cast this as "fake news".

Yes to what you say - and important to note, Seymour is still lying to media, claiming this food is nutritionally comparable when it's not.

He's never stopped lying and they appear to be taught (Atlas way) to always double down.

Or when caught out on more significant matters e.g Seymour's endorsement of Polkinghorne where he tried to intefere with a live police investigation - pull a stunt like driving a jeep up Parliamentary steps.

It's sadder to note that the PM is also a pathological liar - I don't know where NZ found such a great group to replace the much maligned Jacinda Ardern and her successor because I don't think there's any comparison.

But it SHOWS US the indomitable power of PR and lies and a friendly NZME mouthpiece (cum Stuff).

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Could not agree more. And the saddest thing about this whole school lunch programme is that Seymour is designing it to fail. He wants to cancel it altogether. At a time when we are failing all 3 of the child poverty measures, this 1 activity could ensure children get at least 1 nutritious meal a day with fruit and veg. Instead, as you've mentioned, people are miserly and focused on the individual, not wanting to feed other people's kids. But really who cares why they need food, they need it, so let's feed them. It leads to so many savings and improvements in other areas like better focus in class, better health outcomes etc. Japan has some of the best health outcomes and they feed every child at school, and each school has a dietician who teaches the children about nutrition, as well as designing a healthy school lunch menu.

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great comment......and yeah....he always doubles down. I agree, he has no social conscience for those sectors of our community who do struggle......and the ACT neoliberal position is its always the individuals fault in the long run......whereas individual property rights...........different Atlas story eh. Great comment MT

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Good article MT.

The school lunch debacle is not a surprise. The COC appointed a critic of the quality, integrated existing system, to set up the new cheap as F system. He and they can only see the cost of things but are completely blind to the value of anything. Another argument against corporatizing NZ

As bad as it is it is better than the Ferry debacle.

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Thank you Tūī , I so enjoy reading your newsletters You’re doing great work informing us on the coalition of chaos

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Thanks Geoff, appreciate it.

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I think DS has designed the school lunch system to fail. He wants 1. Parents or 2. Communities (volunteers) to provide the lunches and for government to completely withdraw. When communities or charities take this on, he succeeds. When they can't: children suffer. Is this the New Zealand we want?

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I wonder what charter school kids get for lunch?

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They are very well funded thanks to Seymour - $150 min was it ? So doubt have to leverage this “cheap” program

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How about gathering up all the late, damaged and slop lunches and serving them in parliament.

Ministry should also be keeping a feedback file.

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A fair recommendation really would be MPs donate their Parliamentary allowance to schools - and they then consume all the school lunches

WIN / WIN

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😱Oh what a suprise ⁉️(not) that a Seymour project doesn't do anything like he says it will, and even worse, harms not helps children & adds to the waste problem.. Also not a suprise that apparently they are not keeping a file of feedback - of course on the subject of "don't wait on someone else" hopefully someone with the right contacts might take it on as a project like my hero in the USA, Amy Siskand, who has been recording EVERY utterance, decision, debacle etc since Trump's 1st time - if any of us with special access to various things took on one subject at a time... ⁉️ I'm out of the loop apart from what others tell me (thanks MT 🫂) but will have a think if there is something I can take responsibility for tracking 🤔👀

We have MT here keeping track of Atlas et al & their influence on our political system (as well as Sapphi 👏) & Bernard Hickey keeping track of the economic/financial side of it, & Dr Payinda exposing the health system problems, Dr Bex the disabled sector... Such a lot of damage to keep track of so we don't forget 🤬

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Yesterday it occurred to me that there are so many issues in play it’s almost impossible to keep track of and defend. Gun control is there, the RSB is looming, ditto crime bill - it’s all intentional.

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