On why complaining about incompetent David Seymour's School Lunches is the only rational response
Some continue to defend David Seymour on school lunches, sidestepping his errors to say:
“Well the parents should pack their lunch” and/or “Kids should be grateful for free food.”
One of these people is the sitting Prime Minister.
So I put together a quick list of why complaint is not only appropriate - it's the only sane response.
1. The old school lunch program could be almost comparable in price1 once you account for all the new2 and hidden3 costs Seymour's piled on to schools and taxpayers.
2. His formal price point is now above $3 - after giving a ~$9mn bonus to Compass - and it’s much worse in every single way.
3. Seymour's program took out thousands of Kiwi jobs and 70 local contracts to give it all to a scandal ridden, low quality multinational.4 That costs taxpayers.
4. His program lunches are 1/2 to 1/3 of the old size, laden with preservatives and so far, contain negligible nutrition.
5. Despite continually claiming his programme had ‘comparative nutrition’,
's shared article proves what I previously postulated:Negotiators had the ability to find “agreed deviation” [on nutritional] standards
i.e. The food can be nutrition-less slop to meet the target price point.5
6. His program has no fresh food in it at all - very bad health-wise and poor role modelling. The old program centred on local fresh food, including bread and fruit, and variety - allowing local schools to choose.
7. His program is now flying junk in from Australia to feed Kiwi kids - further than his original, centralised base of Hamilton, both adding significant emissions.
8. His waste rates6 are 50%, 60%, and above 70% and only about 10% are fully eaten. That is excessive waste of what should be a serious investment. Old program had excess of 10% and excess was taken home and donated.
9. His program has more complaints in ~a week than the full 3 years prior combined.
10. His program is putting extreme strain on principals, teachers and schools - many of whom are complaining this is taking hours of their time to administer, sort, deal with continual issues every day. Energy that should be spent on education.
11. Seymour's program is literally sending kids to emergency with severe burns (and no, the schools aren't heating it - they were delivered as exploding devices to the school) Others are getting steam burns. No government lunch programme should be actively hurting children.
12. Seymour was lying about issues up until kids got burnt - demonstrating zero accountability and wasting millions of dollars to leave kids burnt, hungry, disappointed, schools scrambling, and demonstrating how to be a wily, deceptive individual.
There's more but this seems enough for now.
Finally, on a common point I’ve seen where folks suggest schools run lunch preparation, we need to consider: Who will fund and resource extra staff, food facilities, food preparation procedures, hygiene management, allergy management, clean up costs etc.?
TLDR: The old program was working well. Seymour’s ruined it with his dishonest claims of private market excellence and efficiency.
Labour’s Peeni Henare sent to Privileges Community for joining in protest haka
When David Seymour lied to Parliament and NZ, on the record, and the truth was revealed the next day after media footage was released, Gary Brownlee defended Seymour, saying it was not necessary for Seymour to be sent to the Privileges Commitee.
However, Te Pāti Māori MP Tākuta Ferris was sent to Privileges Committee for saying this.
"A knowledge gap is a dangerous thing. It allows lies to be presented as truths. Politicians call this obfuscation-the art of making something unclear, intentionally vague, ambiguous, to conceal or obscure the truth, to confuse others.
"Lies, in other words. Many in this House are masters of it, and it is a disservice to those who voted you into your positions."
i.e. According to the Westminster System of Government, led by National, ACT and NZ First, it is fine to lie. It just not acceptable to call it out.
When Winston Peters and Shane Jones launched racist, and bullying attacks on Green Party MPs, they were not sent to Privileges Committee.
But when Labour MP Peenie Henare stepped forward out of his seat to join a protest haka against the Treaty Principles Bill last year, the Government made sure he received the iron treatment.
How should one conceivably act within a Parliament that allows deceit, but disallows us to express protest and dissatisfaction in the only way we can?
Special shout out to Auckland ACT List MP Dr Parmjeet Parmar who seemed particularly inane, and Minister Louise Upston, who as usual shows a more punitive attitude than her boss.
Just don’t call Louise heartless.
Music
Old program costs ranged from $5.56 - $8.62 all inclusive (excluding GST)
One school estimates additional costs are $5000. There are about 1015 schools involved. Even with a very rough estimate of less than 1/3 schools with less than 350 kids, and not receiving extra allowance for administration, that comes to over $1m. And this does not include extra costs of emissions (transport from Hamilton versus local delivery, and now flights in from Australia), extra time dealing with handling continual problems (late, burnt food, burning, frozen food) and sending kids to emergency departments, FTE equivalent of staff at the Ministry and schools dealing with the issues, hundreds and thousands of dollars as schools have to order in after not receiving lunches and/or receiving burnt, and opened, non-allergy accounted for lunches etc. The Ministry of Education also recognises new excessive waste and landill costs on schools.
Actively contributing to poor health, attention and education outcomes for children, loss tax revenue for the government, increased job beneficiary costs, less GST revenue for the government, increased emissions costs etc.
Compass have been called Britain’s “most heartless employer” and its litany of failures is troubling.
Old program excess rates were 10% but all taken and donated. These ones are thrown in the bin, and due to unpopularity and poor taste, some schools are taking to feeding waste to pigs.
Great stuff as always. And yet there are those who are saying “ if they were hungry enough they’d eat it” implying perhaps we aren’t starving our kids to the proper extent yet?
As well as feeding those hungry, a shared healthy meal has pro-social benefits. The ‘breaking of bread’ that many cultures have valued for centuries. School meals are a formal and prized part of the day in many European nations and contribute to good habits and inclusivity.
BTW I like the extensive use of footnotes. Makes reading the main article easier.
The whole idea of these school lunches is that they are for children for whom their only nutritious meal of the day is a school lunch. Regardless of whether their parents should be providing it for them, the point is that for so many they are not. Children are our future and we as a society must try to look after them - all of them. It's for the benefit of us all to do so. It is disappointing that the headline in the NZ Herald today refers to a "saviour" of Seymour's scheme in that Compass will buy out Libelle to continue this horror show.