Free school lunches: David Seymour says Government is ‘saving’ the programme

Act Party leader David Seymour says “we’re the ones that are saving the school lunch programme” because the Labour Party did not budget anything for it beyond 2024.

Seymour has previously described free school lunches as “wasteful” public spending and plans to trim back the programme, which feeds children in almost 1000 schools.

Introduced by Labour in 2019, Ka Ora, Ka Ako was allocated $323.4 million in the 2023 Budget to continue it through this year but has not been funded beyond that.

Act party leader David Seymour, seen in Tauranga on Thursday, says the coalition will make the school lunch programme "better and smarter". Photo / Alex Cairns

Associate Education Minister Seymour told the Bay of Plenty Times in Tauranga on Thursday the Labour Party did not put aside “a single cent” to fund school lunches in 2025, 2026 and 2027.

“So all of the talk about who’s cutting, just remember, the Labour Party did not fund school lunches in term one next year.”

Seymour said the Government faced the challenge of finding the money to make it work.

“We’re not getting rid of the programme. We’re going to start from zero, because that’s how much they set aside, and then jiggle around the Government budget, find hundreds of millions of dollars in order to make sure that we can afford to keep those benefits going to students.

“We’re the ones that are saving the school lunch programme from a previous Government that didn’t fund it. And we’re going to do it better and smarter so that the benefits still go to the kids who need it most.”

Asked about restoring mortgage interest deductibility for landlords at the same time, Seymour said taking a “tax” off the rental housing market would lead to cheaper rents over time, relieving the “biggest pressure” for students, renters, and people on low incomes.

Former Education Minister and Labour education spokeswoman Jan Tinetti. Photo / Andrew Warner

In response to Seymour’s comments, Tauranga-based former Education Minister and Labour education spokeswoman Jan Tinetti said the Government could “easily afford” to pay for the programme on an ongoing basis “if that was a choice they were willing to make”.

“The Government has chosen to give a $2.9 billion tax break to landlords rather than feeding more than 200,000 kids every day,” Tinetti said.

“That sum is the equivalent of 439 million school lunches and would enable the programme to continue for years to come.”

Tinetti said Seymour wanted to halve the cost of the programme, which could “only result in far fewer children getting free and healthy lunches”.

“With all of David Seymour’s talk about attendance this week, he’s still looking at cutting back a programme that is a reason some kids can go to school. He must not underestimate the difference a full tummy can make for a child, for their learning and their health.”

Act Party leader David Seymour (right), with MP Cameron Luxton, says Tauranga has a housing shortage because everyone wants to live there. Photo / Alex Cairns

Tinetti said parents and caregivers were saving, on average, $33 per week per child at schools where lunches were provided.

“It is exactly the kind of programme that should continue to be funded, especially right now when families are struggling with the cost of living.”

Tinetti said the Labour Government made it clear during the election it would fund healthy school lunches “on a long-term basis”, which was set out in its election manifesto - including how it would pay for it.

A Labour Party press release on Wednesday said its “Labour Save School Lunches” petition had received more than 46,000 signatures.

Tauranga housing shortage

Seymour said the city’s housing shortage was because “everyone wants to live in Tauranga”.

He said it was important to fund infrastructure better, which Act MP Simon Court and Minister for Infrastructure Chris Bishop were working on, and there would be more co-ordination between central government as a funder and local government as a planner.

Seymour believed a previous lack of co-ordination between the two meant “we get precisely nothing built”.

“If you get the pipes, the roads, the buses, the libraries, all of the infrastructure that’s needed, then you can easily build more homes.”

Act Party MP Cameron Luxton (left) and leader David Seymour in Tauranga on Thursday. Photo / Alex Cairns

Seymour said the medium-density residential standards would be reversed.

“In its place, you’ll see city deals. A deal between central government and Tauranga... every region will have a deal for funding and financing infrastructure that fits with the planning and that means that you start getting more connections so more sections... and then you can build more homes.”

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon previously told the Bay of Plenty Times that Tauranga will likely be one of the first in line for a city deal.

Megan Wilson is a health and general news reporter for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post. She has been a journalist since 2021.