I was not a fan of the government providing school lunches from the get go as it is simply a further abrogation of parents’ responsibilities where the government acts as parent, guardian and educator. (And don’t forget that a significant number of parents are failing to even ensure their offspring attend school, never mind putting sandwiches and an apple in a lunchbox.) If this approach continues things won’t get better, they will only get worse. The best thing David Seymour could do is to can the whole ridiculous project but I assume that would be a step too far for Christopher Luxon. If parents can’t provide breakfast (also provided in some schools) or lunch, one wonders if dinner ever appears in the home.
According to Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers’ Union, the Government is borrowing $12 BILLION this year to fund their deficit. It is costing $478 million to fund these meals and it appears the main beneficiaries are pigs.
The programme obviously needs a further overview in terms of wastage. If it is going to be continued, it should be, as Richard Prebble has suggested, targeted. Williams put forward what he described as a radical suggestion: put the rest of the money into educating the kids.
We all know finances can often be difficult for households but sometimes it’s a question of priorities. What is the money being used for? This is why I would have budgetary advisors in every WINZ office to whom people having problems could be referred. They would have to produce receipts to show how their money was being spent. It’s a bit like instituting a DOGE operation for households rather than government departments. DOHE – Department of Household Economics.
The media are intent on making a meal out of a meal. I am still waiting for the bunch of journalist ‘wets’ to inform me how these little darlings cope in the school holidays. Do they simply starve? Do they steal from food outlets? Do they ram raid dairies for a pie and a bottle of coke? It is this that makes a mockery of the whole idea.
The media’s obsession with the school lunches has been pathetic to say the least. TVNZ and Radio NZ should be defunded over their coverage. These two bastions of left-wing propaganda have covered the issue to the point of insanity. Radio NZ has done over 100 articles on the topic. TVNZ tried to have us believe (from a fourth-hand source) that a fly survived being heated to 140 degrees before flying out of a meal. Do they ever wonder why trust in the media is at an all-time low?
This taxpayer-funded project has got way out of hand and feeding children who are quite capable of bringing their own lunch to school is a misuse of our money. National, who I presume are the problem in not wanting to offend anyone, need to, once again, grow a spine and stop this nonsense. I’m pretty sure that is the wish of ACT and NZ First: it is certainly mine and, according to Williams’ surveys, also the wish of voters. The Taxpayers’ Union are soon to poll on the issue. Once again National is dancing to a different tune. They need to get in step with their supporters and the majority of reasoned people.
P.S.
My suspicion re National being the problem was confirmed by Dan Woods on Backchat who heard Nicola Willis on the ZB Business Hour, in his words, ‘make an absolute pillock of herself’ defending the school lunch programme. This is quite the wrong approach and, as Dan pointed out, she should be promoting self responsibility to parents to make their child a lunch rather than promote a reliance on the state.
This attitude will not win National votes. After Winston’s speech, I suspect many will be thinking long and hard as to whether that is where their vote should go.
JC is a right-wing crusader. Reached an age that embodies the dictum only the good die young. This article was first published HERE
According to Jordan Williams of the Taxpayers’ Union, the Government is borrowing $12 BILLION this year to fund their deficit. It is costing $478 million to fund these meals and it appears the main beneficiaries are pigs.
The programme obviously needs a further overview in terms of wastage. If it is going to be continued, it should be, as Richard Prebble has suggested, targeted. Williams put forward what he described as a radical suggestion: put the rest of the money into educating the kids.
We all know finances can often be difficult for households but sometimes it’s a question of priorities. What is the money being used for? This is why I would have budgetary advisors in every WINZ office to whom people having problems could be referred. They would have to produce receipts to show how their money was being spent. It’s a bit like instituting a DOGE operation for households rather than government departments. DOHE – Department of Household Economics.
The media are intent on making a meal out of a meal. I am still waiting for the bunch of journalist ‘wets’ to inform me how these little darlings cope in the school holidays. Do they simply starve? Do they steal from food outlets? Do they ram raid dairies for a pie and a bottle of coke? It is this that makes a mockery of the whole idea.
The media’s obsession with the school lunches has been pathetic to say the least. TVNZ and Radio NZ should be defunded over their coverage. These two bastions of left-wing propaganda have covered the issue to the point of insanity. Radio NZ has done over 100 articles on the topic. TVNZ tried to have us believe (from a fourth-hand source) that a fly survived being heated to 140 degrees before flying out of a meal. Do they ever wonder why trust in the media is at an all-time low?
This taxpayer-funded project has got way out of hand and feeding children who are quite capable of bringing their own lunch to school is a misuse of our money. National, who I presume are the problem in not wanting to offend anyone, need to, once again, grow a spine and stop this nonsense. I’m pretty sure that is the wish of ACT and NZ First: it is certainly mine and, according to Williams’ surveys, also the wish of voters. The Taxpayers’ Union are soon to poll on the issue. Once again National is dancing to a different tune. They need to get in step with their supporters and the majority of reasoned people.
P.S.
My suspicion re National being the problem was confirmed by Dan Woods on Backchat who heard Nicola Willis on the ZB Business Hour, in his words, ‘make an absolute pillock of herself’ defending the school lunch programme. This is quite the wrong approach and, as Dan pointed out, she should be promoting self responsibility to parents to make their child a lunch rather than promote a reliance on the state.
This attitude will not win National votes. After Winston’s speech, I suspect many will be thinking long and hard as to whether that is where their vote should go.
JC is a right-wing crusader. Reached an age that embodies the dictum only the good die young. This article was first published HERE
2 comments:
Why do all these articles assume that it is the beneficiaries who have the least money? A normal solo mother with three kids receives over the average wage when all the supplements are added, plus she has subsidized accommodation. Those who are Maori get added benefits even on top of that. What about the others who earn under the average wage? The poorest people I know are self employed.
So the beneficiaries have spare time on their hands plus a reasonable income. What is the problem the government is trying to solve? Laziness? Spending money on takeaways, alcohol, drugs and cigarettes rather than proper food for the kids?
Scrap the whole lunch thing and concentrate on real educational issues like the fact we have the longest tail of underachievement in the developed world .
Our statistics on child obesity are high as well . Look into this instead of wasting school time and taxpayers money on feeding in some cases overfed children. Introducing this lunch programme was foolishness as were most of Ardern's ideas . Child poverty increased under Ardern according to Lyndsay who blogs on this site.
An alternative would be for those from higher incomes in low decile schools to pay for the supplied lunch. In the reverse have social welfare agencies investigate the situation.
Have schools stick to their knitting -education not feeding. At present they are failing horribly in teaching the basics.
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