Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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Forums › Politics › Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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556 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3353300 12-Mar-2025 21:26

freitasm:

The incompetence level of this government is astounding.

Remind us again why so many children need these lunches?

I realise that its the parents who are misusing their benefits in not being able to provide lunches...but surely its the "better off" parents who are the ones doing the complaining about the quality. Isn't Fonterra also supplying free milk to all children? Are we going to have dinner ladies next?

Not trying to be smug here, but the level of government assistance is quite staggering. What actually is so wrong with a cheese sandwich?

I dont find it incompetent to try and do the job for less. I do agree, that more homework was needed.

freitasm

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#3353302 12-Mar-2025 21:34

Bluntj:

Remind us again why so many children need these lunches?

I realise that its the parents who are misusing their benefits in not being able to provide lunches...but surely its the "better off" parents who are the ones doing the complaining about the quality. Isn't Fonterra also supplying free milk to all children? Are we going to have dinner ladies next?

Whoa. So you are generalising and making all parents in need of help to be scammers?

Do you think that 100% of parents are employed? Or do you think the ones that aren't employed are not working because they don't want to?

I was laid off once and took me almost 16 months to find a job. I was the lucky one with a redudancy insurance as part of my life insurance.The insurance company paid of a few months but I had to give evidence of applying for jobs before getting paid.

But I guess if I didn't have it you would say I was just being a lazy bastard?

quickymart

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#3353320 12-Mar-2025 22:07

Bluntj:

I realise that its the parents who are misusing their benefits in not being able to provide lunches...but surely its the "better off" parents who are the ones doing the complaining about the quality. Isn't Fonterra also supplying free milk to all children? Are we going to have dinner ladies next?

I think you're misunderstanding the point of the school lunch programme. It's to assist parents who are struggling to get by (even if they're working) - and I daresay that the amount "misusing their benefits" and unable to afford lunch for their kids is nowhere near as big as you imply.

freitasm

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#3353326 12-Mar-2025 22:31

Based on your reply up in this page, I went looking for other arguments and found this:

Bluntj:

It must be remembered that in theory the Government is paying a significant proportion of the parents via various means (working for families, benefits etc) to provide their children with food. Surely that is sufficient.

No, it's not suficient. Haven't you seen the efforts from this government to reduce benefits?

Bluntj:

Not sure why such a large scale lunch programme is required when not every child needs food.

You're correct, not every child needs food. But imagine if one child does need food, and food is delivered to this child only. This young person might feel intimidated by being the only "poor kid" in the class. This kid might not want to eat.

It's better to feed everyone than let someone go hungry.

I rather have my tax dollars going to feed a child, even one that doesn't need, than be used as tax breaks for landlords or as tax breaks for tobacco companies.

I guess people have different priorities.

quickymart

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#3353334 12-Mar-2025 23:15

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/544573/erica-stanford-and-david-seymour-meet-over-free-school-lunches-programme-fiasco

So pleasing (not) to see that both of them think that the current system is completely fixable there's "no need" to go back to the old system that, well, worked 🙄

God I hope Labour - or someone else - wins the next election that actually cares about our nation's kids.

SaltyNZ

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#3353355 13-Mar-2025 08:31

Bluntj:

I realise that its the parents who are misusing their benefits in not being able to provide lunches...

Sorry, what? Parents who don't provide lunches are misusing their benefits? Sure, there definitely are some. There are indeed a number of irredeemably awful people in the world who have no business passing on their genes. Some of them are beneficiaries. Others become president of the USA.

The vast majority of parents who don't send their kids to school with lunches simply cannot afford it no matter how much they work or how hard they try.

But you know what? It actually doesn't matter.

The kids don't get to choose their parents. They deserve to be fed.

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freitasm

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#3353356 13-Mar-2025 08:33

Worth repeating it, about school lunches:

SaltyNZ:

But you know what? It actually doesn't matter.

The kids don't get to choose their parents. They deserve to be fed.

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GV27

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#3353368 13-Mar-2025 09:27

I've come around to the idea that your kids getting a free lunch at school should just be seen as a gimme for parents who are able to and care enough to already provide that for their kids. Consider it a freebie you wouldn't otherwise get.

It's time to abandon the idea that this is worth pursuing as a cost-cutting measure and start asking how much more would it cost scale it up to do it properly. My gut feel is it would not an arm and a leg more than what we were paying before. It's a failed experiment and Luxon refusing to admit so is letting the fallout spread beyond the ministers in question to himself. His advisors should be ahead of this.

sen8or

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#3353377 13-Mar-2025 10:15

I've not been in the situation though where a hot school lunch may be the best meal I was likely to get for that day which arguably applies to some of the children whom the lunches are intended for. If that is the case, then they need decent food.

ezbee

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#3353580 13-Mar-2025 14:53

Seymoure is there to make lunch program fail and end it.
Money is needed to subsidize Charter School owners farmlets they call a school.

When you look at how much effort schools put into forcing overly expensive uniforms on families with limited incomes. The whole original point was most basic low cost clothing.
Then there are other additional school expenses.

Maybe there would be more money for lunches.

Aside from growing accommodation costs, food prices, electricity costs, and gigifying of jobs.
Juggling jobs with both parents working and commutes.
My father was able to buy a good sized house on a very basic average wage.
You are not doing that with one parent working nowadays, not with two unless one has a really good job.

Most 1st world countries are providing school meals in one way or another to deal with realities of modern life.

The right wing and Elon-ists love do go on about demographics.
If you want more children the economics have to stack up of raising them. If you want more to be achieving as well.
Then qualified workers on limited visas are soooo much cheaper, even free if you suppress your empathy.

invisibleman18

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#3353914 14-Mar-2025 11:53

ezbee:

When you look at how much effort schools put into forcing overly expensive uniforms on families with limited incomes. The whole original point was most basic low cost clothing.
Then there are other additional school expenses.

Maybe there would be more money for lunches.

Going a bit off topic I guess but I do wonder if uniforms are something a government might look at standardising or putting a limit on the price.

I never grew up poor. Not wealthy by any stretch but went to a local state school in a decile area that wouldn’t have qualified for the lunches, and didn’t need them. But I do remember my parents complaining about the cost of the uniforms for what was essentially a polo shirt with a logo, and plain shorts/trousers so we often had them second hand.

I do wonder how people manage the cost of uniforms these days as well as requiring laptops/devices. I can only imagine the teasing or bullying that must go on for the kid in class who can’t afford the laptop. Or do schools have some available for those who can’t buy their own? We’re not able to have kids so something we’ll never need to worry about, but going a bit off topic here I know.

Rikkitic

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#3353923 14-Mar-2025 12:33

I have a particular loathing for school uniforms. No children in my life at this stage so it is just a matter of principle. As far as I am concerned, they have more to do with turning out conforming cogs for the machine than any educational purpose. Even if they weren't hugely overpriced they would be a complete waste of money. Surely there are more important things to worry about than making all the kids look like indistinguishable clones.

I am against uniforms of any kind but if they absolutely cannot get past this, why can't schools just issue requirements for inexpensive (non-designer) brands but otherwise leave the choice up to the kids? Other countries seem to do fine without the bricks in the wall approach. Schools need to get over their obsession with making everyone look identical.

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Handle9

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#3354233 15-Mar-2025 17:23

Rikkitic:

I have a particular loathing for school uniforms. No children in my life at this stage so it is just a matter of principle. As far as I am concerned, they have more to do with turning out conforming cogs for the machine than any educational purpose. Even if they weren't hugely overpriced they would be a complete waste of money. Surely there are more important things to worry about than making all the kids look like indistinguishable clones.

I am against uniforms of any kind but if they absolutely cannot get past this, why can't schools just issue requirements for inexpensive (non-designer) brands but otherwise leave the choice up to the kids? Other countries seem to do fine without the bricks in the wall approach. Schools need to get over their obsession with making everyone look identical.

Uniforms are overwhelmingly popular with parents. The schools largely don't care, the parents do. The board represents the parents so uniforms are ubiquitous.

quickymart

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#3354649 17-Mar-2025 17:55

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/545085/haeata-community-campus-wants-to-ditch-free-school-lunch-provider

The principal of a Christchurch school says it is wanting to get out of its contract with the Compass Group following several weeks of problems and "disappointing" service.

I wonder if this will be the start of something big?

I also note that despite Seymour telling us that "some schools are saying the food now is better than what they were getting last year", he has never said which schools told him this, and when asked to show said e-mails he declines on the grounds of "privacy reasons". I would have thought he would happily volunteer such information (with the school's permission) to show how well his new! improved! lunch programme is doing 🙄

This leads me to believe that he's either lying or making it up.

tdgeek

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#3354663 17-Mar-2025 19:22

quickymart:

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/545085/haeata-community-campus-wants-to-ditch-free-school-lunch-provider

The principal of a Christchurch school says it is wanting to get out of its contract with the Compass Group following several weeks of problems and "disappointing" service.

I wonder if this will be the start of something big?

I also note that despite Seymour telling us that "some schools are saying the food now is better than what they were getting last year", he has never said which schools told him this, and when asked to show said e-mails he declines on the grounds of "privacy reasons". I would have thought he would happily volunteer such information (with the school's permission) to show how well his new! improved! lunch programme is doing 🙄

This leads me to believe that he's either lying or making it up.

Transparency or lack thereof. Alt-right so he's always right. If he had manned up, "hey its only school lunches, what's hard about that??? But it was hard, so I will review this personally with the schools and the providers and see what is the best way forward."

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