Lindsay Mitchell: Feed the Kids Bill - say something

From the Green's blog:

Please help me get my Feed the Kids Bill to Select Committee

October 30, 2014 Metiria Turei 

Last week I took over the Feed the Kids Bill that Hone Harawira had introduced to Parliament. If passed, my Bill will provide government-funded breakfast and lunch in all decile 1 and 2 schools.

Hungry kids can’t learn and are left trapped in the poverty cycle when they grow up.

Let’s break that cycle, lunchbox by lunch box. We can feed the country’s hungry kids, if we work together.

My Bill is at a crucial stage of its progress – part way through its First Reading – and may be voted on as early as next Wednesday 5 November. 

The way the numbers stack up in the new Parliament the Bill will be voted down unless we can persuade the National Party to change its position and support it going to Select Committee. National have been talking a lot about child poverty since the election, and supporting my Bill is one way they can start to address it. 

You can help me persuade the Prime Minister to let the public have a say on this important issue by emailing  John Key, asking that National support my Bill at least to Select Committee. We need to broaden and build the public debate on addressing child poverty, and submissions on this Bill to a Select Committee will help achieve this. 

Because of the potentially short timeframe, you’ll need to send your emails as soon as possible and before Monday 3 November at the latest.

As the link was provided I emailed the PM:

 Dear Mr Key

Green co-leader Metiria Turei has asked people to contact you directly to support her Feed the Kids Bill. She provided the link to your address through the Green blog. I have never written to you before.

I sincerely hope you will not support this bill. It would chisel away even more parental responsibility. The less that is expected of parents, the less they will provide or produce. That scenario does not auger well for their children's general welfare.

Even parents reliant on a benefit are paid enough to provide some fruit and modest sandwiches daily. An inability to do so is a symptom of a greater problem requiring scrutiny - for the sake of their child.

The 'income management' regime provides a response to genuinely hungry children. It may interest you that even Labour advocated for extended income management in its election manifesto. Their 2014 ‘Social Development’ policy paper proposed, “…allow[ing] income management to be used as a tool by social agencies where there are known child protection issues and it is considered in the best interests of the child, especially where there are gambling, drug and alcohol issues involved.”

Sincerely
Lindsay Mitchell

Doesn't take long to make a couple of points if you are so inclined.