Long stories short, the top six things that stood out to me in our political economy around housing, climate and poverty on Thursday, February 26:
A crescendo of teacher, student and parent complaints is building over David Seymour’s cheap and nasty school lunch programme, with a cascade of ugly photos and reports of delays, allergy and halal failures, meal no-shows and evidence of nutrition-lite and small portion lunches hitting frontpages and facebook school community pages daily;
This morning Newsroom reports the Ministry of Education has released details of the nationwide contract with Compass, showing it must fix the issues by term two or risk losing the contract;
The first rule of modern focus-group and poll-driven politics is never alienate the soccer and netball ‘moms,’ with signs the mean-spirited and shoddily-designed programme is disrupting school life and bleeding into the daily lives and community pages of families up and down the motu;
Seymour’s replacement of locally-run-and-owned lunch providers with a centralised and foreign-owned corporate, which was previously punished for breaching food contracts, appears to clash with National, NZ First and ACT’s avowed support for local small businesses;
Seymour is currently acting PM with Christopher Luxon in Vietnam and Deputy PM Winston Peters in China, again reinforcing the impression Luxon has allowed an extremist tail to wag the dog in a National-led Government; and,
Government-administered inflation is growing as a concern for voters, mortgage rate re-fixers and the Reserve Bank as two of the three Government-controlled electricity retailers signal double-digit price increases1, and another council-run bus company is set to increase fares by 43% because of Government funding cuts.
(There is more detail, analysis and links to documents below the paywall fold and in the video and podcast above for paying subscribers. If we get over 100 likes from paying subscribers we’ll open it up for public reading, listening and sharing.)
‘Fix the shitty, late, not-delivered & ugly lunches. Or else.’
National was already behind Labour in the polls at the beginning of February, so the last thing PM Christopher Luxon needed was an eruption of protest from mums and teachers in the suburbs about disruption and ugliness in their schools to start term 1.
Day-in and day-out, the nation’s ‘soccer and netball moms’ have seen a cavalcade of headlines and social media outrage over Associate Education Minister David Seymour’s deliberately cheap and unpalatable school lunch programme, including the following in the last two days alone:
Health news: 11 days of butter chicken: More problems with school lunches RNZ’s Louise Ternouth
Politics news: 'How many days in a row can you eat this?' - Schools slash lunch orders RNZ’s John Gerritsen
Education news: School lunch provider's boss says it's 'mission critical' to meet KPIs RNZ’s Checkpoint
Housing deep-dive: ‘Joy and nourishment’ gone: The hidden impact of the new school lunch programme. David Seymour’s new school lunches are saving money, but others say it’s coming at a significant cost to some communities. Stuff’s Nadine Roberts
Health news: Nutritionist finds list of issues with school lunch programme NZ Herald
Education news: School lunch supplier sorry after delivery error leaves kids hungry Northern Advocate
Politics news: Who says school lunches are good? No official record of lunch complaints?RNZ’s Phil Pennington
Politics news: Seymour 'hasn't done his homework. He's just relied on laziness.’ Outrage over ‘halal friendly’ ham sandwiches' RNZ Maia Ingoe
Now Newsroom-Pro-$$$’s Fox Meyer is reporting this morning that the Ministry of Education has released a copy its contract with Compass showing it:
includes a commitment to supply a diverse range of meals that are “palatable” and nutritious;
an adherence to vegetarian and halal dietary requirements;
a commitment to minimise food waste; and
a responsibility to deliver these meals “on time and in full.”
A review of Compass’ performance is specified for term 2 if it can’t fix the issues quickly.
If Compass is found to be in breach of the requirements, the ministry may notify the company via written letter and the contract may be terminated if the matter is not resolved within 20 working days. The Ministry of Education confirmed that no such letter has been sent, as any potential breaches will be identified during the company’s first review in Term 2.
The ministry told Newsroom the School Lunch Collective – which Compass leads – was “100 percent committed to meeting all their agreed service levels, and our immediate focus is to work closely with the Collective to resolve any outstanding issues as quickly as possible”.
The contract was subsequently released by the Ministry of Education. Signed on October 18, it details Compass Group’s commitments and the process by which it could lose the contract if it failed to meet them.
A termination clause was included, which could be activated in three ways: for convenience – a short section, completely redacted – or if either the ministry or Compass breached the contract. From the ministry’s side, this meant failure to foot the bill.
For Compass to fail, the multi–million dollar international company would have to either fall apart or fail to meet its obligations in the contract. Those obligations were set out in Schedule 2, at the bottom of the services agreement. Newsroom Pro-$$$’s Fox Meyer
Costs blow out and potentially allergic meals investigated
Also, BusinessDesk-$$$’s Cecile Meier reported last week Compass had already received a $8.9 million top-up to the original $478 million contract over two years. Seymour set up the deal with Compass to save $109 million per year on the cost of the previous Labour Government’s Ka Ora Ka Ako: Health School Lunches programme. He had originally said the savings would be $130 million. They’re now down to barely $100 million.
BusinessDesk-$$$’s Cecile Meier also reported last week that Ministry for Primary Industries' (MPI) food safety unit was in the “very early stages” of investigating Compass after it had to recall 50 special dietary meals from schools in Christchurch that were mislabelled as allergy-free.
Today’s pick’ n’ mix of must-reads elsewhere
Housing scoop: The real estate agent who ran a ‘dangerous’, illegal boarding house. A boarding house had naked wires hanging from the ceiling, exposed waterpipes, no central fire alarm and some tenants were told to move out without any reason. Stuff’s Edward Gay
Political analysis: ‘He's at a very important juncture now’ - What the Luxon interview with Hosking revealed Stuff’s Glenn McConnell
Health & poverty deep-dive: Inside the success of Mana Kids. Meet the nurses working towards equitable healthcare for tamariki. 'This work is definitely a priority for us and our populations. But is it a priority of the government?' The Spinoff’s Alice Webb Liddall
Joblessness deep-dive: One position, 1,200 applications: A snapshot of New Zealand’s job market right now The Spinoff’s Gabi Lardies
Cost of living explainer: What's behind the incoming power price rises? RNZ’s Morning Report
Political analysis: Has violent crime really dropped for the first time since 2018?The source for the claim? A tweet. The Spinoff’s Alice Neville
Video of the day
Chart of the day
Substack essentials today
UN vote record of the day
Cartoon of the day
Timeline-cleansing nature pic
Ka kite ano
Bernard
Tom Pullar Strecker reports for The Post-$$$ this morning that Meridian is set to follow Mercury with double-digit power price increases. Stuff reports today the Wellington Regional Council’s Metlink is set to increase off-peak bus and train fares by 43% after funding cuts by the Government.
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