Christopher Luxon, New Zealand Prime Minister 2023

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

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#3508386 3-Jul-2026 17:43

Modi is in the habit of receiving spurious awards during his overseas visits:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/03/narendra-modi-awards-honours-overseas-trips

I assume our government has something lined up for him next week..

freitasm

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#3508528 4-Jul-2026 11:06

Some of us already pointed out how stupid this was, from the start.

Auditor-General issues warning over government's school lunch scheme

Alarm bells are ringing over the coalition's school lunch programme, with the Auditor-General warning the government has not been able to clearly show the scheme is delivering its aims.

A report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon finds the programme is saving money compared to Labour's approach, but says its performance is not being properly monitored or tracked.

It also flags concerns about how the new system was set up, including weak back-up planning and last-minute changes even after contracts had been signed.

The findings were part of a final report from the Auditor-General's investigation begun last year after concerns were raised about the programme - in the media and with the Office directly - over quality, timeliness, appropriateness of the food provided, how costs were determined and how providers were selected.

Associate Education Minister David Seymour had in October 2024 signed a two-year contract for $85 million a year with the School Lunch Collective.

In a statement, Seymour rebuffed the criticisms, saying the report "favours process over outcomes, and the disgruntled over reality".

"The report is driven by former suppliers and former employees of the Ministry of Education," he said.

"By making the programme more efficient I have saved the taxpayer $360m and counting. The Auditor-General should be happy about this outcome. Reading the report, it feels like the Auditor-General would be happy if we spent another $360m to get the same outcome, so long as we followed his preferred process.

Cabinet agreed to a $3-per-meal price tag despite officials warning it might not meet nutritional needs and could create operational complexity for schools with multiple age groups, and that it could increase the burden on schools, affect the health of students, and increase cost of living pressure for whānau and families.
The ministry also warned it had not tested the $3 cost with the market or thoroughly analysed the cost. Advice from the ministry also changed so that where $3 was initially intended as a "high-level estimate" covering only food, it became a policy benchmark and was expanded to cover all costs.
After the ministry put out a tender, the scope was changed to require a shift to hot lunches and the cost was kept at $3 per meal, despite suppliers and schools warning this may not be achievable.
The ministry was aware of past performance issues with both Compass and Libelle, and had concerns about Libelle's financial stability under the previous model, but relied on Compass' assurance of Libelle's production capacity and contracted with Compass as lead contractor to reduce risk exposure.
The model was implemented before the officials had contingency planning finalised. Contingency planning was "inadequate for a programme of this size, scale and risk, particularly given the previous performance of key suppliers".
Multiple food safety concerns arose during the early days of the revamped programme, ranging from dietary meals being mislabelled to students finding melted plastic, broken seals or bits of glass in their food, or being burnt by overheated meals.

The report found 51 complaints were logged in February alone. Some concerns were resolved in a single day, one took 260 days.

On waste, although the collective was required to have a waste management plan, the report found no contractual target for it.

The waste plan shows all packaging is to be sent to landfill rather than recycled apart from in Auckland, Waikato and Bay of Plenty where only trays are recycled.

No measure of food waste was in place in early 2025, and waste was only measured once, over 10 days in Term 3, 2025.

Nutrition standards also fell short, with only 50.5 percent of the meals complying with nutrition standards across 2025 - although terms 3 and 4 showed improvements (69 percent and 75 percent).

We knew this would never be of good quality, nutrition value or cost-beneficial.

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#3508541 4-Jul-2026 11:51

I did see a comment along the lines of "I wonder if Seymour would be happy to have a $3 lunch every day? I doubt it."

But it's perfectly fine for our kids 🙄

gzt

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#3508542 4-Jul-2026 11:52

Michael Laws confirms stand as NZ First candidate with the intention to become Minister of Broadcasting and eliminate Radio New Zealand:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-nz-first-candidate-michael-laws-wants-broadcasting-portfolio-to-scrap-rnz/NIHAY3OYGNGBPL4S67LB6VX7PQ

While continuing his show on The Platform.

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#3508543 4-Jul-2026 11:56

gzt: Michael Laws confirms stand as NZ First candidate with the intention to become Minister of Broadcasting and eliminate Radio New Zealand:

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/politics/new-nz-first-candidate-michael-laws-wants-broadcasting-portfolio-to-scrap-rnz/NIHAY3OYGNGBPL4S67LB6VX7PQ

While continuing his show on The Platform.

It's the Trumpian way. Join the government, eliminate institutions that actually do work, then place/replace your friends in positions of influence. Profit.

All the while eliminating dissent and other voices.

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JayADee

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#3508875 6-Jul-2026 06:34

NZ is rapidly going to hell thanks to this government.

The Disabilities Support bill being rushed through parliament is horrendous.

I have here a link to a rant about it and a link to the bill so you can see for yourself plus a link to a Stuff story. The bill is short and easy to read if you want a look. Check out part 2 section 8 and 11 if nothing else: https://www.legislation.govt.nz/bill/government/2026/312/en/latest/#LMS1608077

Keep in mind section 8 is the Principles of the bill- the umbrella intention if you will. What’s referred to before making decisions about disability funding and the specifics of any decisions or further additions to the bill then follow.The bill also grants the Minister the power to make future changes and additions to disability funding rules without going through the usual public submission or consultation processes. They can essentially add whatever they want later on without community input.

Facebook link: https://fb.watch/IalsSvgH5E/?fs=e

Stuff news article: https://www.stuff.co.nz/politics/361000995/nothing-about-us-without-us-16000-strong-petition-calls-scrapping-disability-services-bill

This isn’t about financial support to the disabled person such as the Supported Living Payment which is already means tested and already pretty stuffed if you ask me. (for example you won’t get any income support at all if your spouse makes over minimum wage or has income equivalent to it).

This is more about getting government assessed, necessary care for the disabled person and who pays for it. It includes all disabled people such as children, adult children, disabled spouses etc. It’s also about employment rights and the right to go to court. This bill can mean that paid family carers (vs agencies or other employed people looking after the disabled person) would not have the right to holiday pay, sick leave, KiwiSaver etc that carers can get now. The bill also explicitly bans disabled people and their carers from taking the government to court over disability discrimination. Think about that last one. It strips normal citizen rights from some of the most vulnerable citizens.

This has Seymour written all over it.

edit to add: the bill was rushed through and consultation time was very limited, it had disability organisations scrambling to respond and a quick petition gained over 16k signatures and was presented the other day.

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#3508902 6-Jul-2026 09:04

freitasm:

Some of us already pointed out how stupid this was, from the start.

Auditor-General issues warning over government's school lunch scheme

....

We knew this would never be of good quality, nutrition value or cost-beneficial.

Based on NZ hospital food ... I would not put the NZ govt in charge of providing food anywhere.

Mike

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#3508904 6-Jul-2026 09:09

Article: The bill has also sparked concerns that disability support will be means-tested, as it would introduce a principle that disabled New Zealanders should use resources and support available from family members before becoming eligible for government support. “Family members”, for the purposes of this bill, includes immediate family, step- and half-siblings, grandparents, grandchildren, uncles, aunts, nephews, nieces and first cousins.

Family values, National style. What a useless awful bill.

SaltyNZ

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#3508930 6-Jul-2026 10:49

JayADee:

It’s also about employment rights and the right to go to court.

...

This has Seymour written all over it.

That'd be at least the third such bill by my count for this government - equal pay, environment, and this one. You could count the Fast Track bill as well I suppose.

Goldsmith also seems to be very on board with this whole idea of severely limiting the ability of courts to challenge Parliament. I would not call myself any sort of fan of the US, but the idea that the Supreme Court holds equal power to Parliament/Congress and can strike down unconstitutional laws is a good one in my opinion. They set the bar too low for Senate confirmation to effectively prevent politicisation (should be something like 2/3 or even 3/4) but the basic principle is sound as appointed judges don't need to worry about constantly winning popularity contests. Only following the law.

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Handle9

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#3508943 6-Jul-2026 12:08

In the Westminster system the courts have no role in “challenging parliament.” The whole concept is an absolute anathema to democracy.

The role of judges is administrative , not legislative. Parliament is sovereign and makes the laws, the judiciary interprets and administers the laws.

The idea that unelected officials have some power of veto over a democratically elected government is incredibly concerning. A judiciary that has become increasingly activist is a real problem in New Zealand. If the judges want to change the law they need to run for parliament.

sen8or

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#3508945 6-Jul-2026 12:13

The Supreme court is also political with presidents selecting the justice's, I believe there is a republican picked majority in the supreme court at present. Whilst on the surface they may be independent, in reality I believe it is far from the case (and hence the over-turning of Roe v wade as an example).

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#3508947 6-Jul-2026 12:24

sen8or:

The Supreme court is also political with presidents selecting the justice's, I believe there is a republican picked majority in the supreme court at present. Whilst on the surface they may be independent, in reality I believe it is far from the case (and hence the over-turning of Roe v wade as an example).

Yes, as I said, the detailed implementation in the US has been shown to not be as robust as you would want, but I believe the principle is sound. They're not going to be influenced by Winston's latest dog-whistle, whatever that happens to be tomorrow.

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MikeAqua

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#3508948 6-Jul-2026 12:25

freitasm:

It's the Trumpian way. Join the government, eliminate institutions that actually do work, then place/replace your friends in positions of influence. Profit.

All the while eliminating dissent and other voices.

Why would RNZ be a voice of dissent? Surely as a state funded broadcaster they're editorially neutral? 🤣

Mike

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#3508949 6-Jul-2026 12:31

SaltyNZ:

Yes, as I said, the detailed implementation in the US has been shown to not be as robust as you would want, but I believe the principle is sound. They're not going to be influenced by Winston's latest dog-whistle, whatever that happens to be tomorrow.

That's the thing about the democracy that gives rise to our sovereign parliament - every three years, we all decide on how much dog-whistling is acceptable to the electorate at large.

Abandoning one of our key constitutional features (separation of executive & judiciary powers) to import the worst aspects of someone else's system to solve a problem we already address through one-person, one-vote proportionality and regular, free and fair elections is a bad deal.

quickymart

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#3508951 6-Jul-2026 12:41

https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/outspoken-developer-matthew-horncastle-referred-to-police-over-political-billboard/QCQUJMZG6RESZFLIERV6S7SJCM/

A Chch property developer with strong ties to National and ACT gets in trouble by putting up a digital election-related billboard without following the proper process.

Reading about Matthew Horncastle (and there is a lot - he seems to post all. day. long.), he comes across (to me) as one of the most arrogant, narcissistic blowhards I've heard about in a long time - and that's saying something in the age of Trump!

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