The Act Party claims $25 million worth of the ‘free’ school lunches signed off by Prime Minister Chris Hipkins has been wasted.

Treasury produced a scathing report of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako healthy lunches in school programme.

It found that 12% of lunches, around 10,000 per day, were “surplus to requirements.”

The report said “we know educational outcomes are declining.

“Achievement scores in reading, science, and maths as measured by the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) has been declining.”

A key finding from the Treasury’s report Te Tai Waiora: Wellbeing in Aotearoa New Zealand is declining youth educational performance.

Over time, attendance rates have been falling, particularly in low-decile schools.

15 year-olds are scoring lower in reading, science and maths, and while there have been improvements in Māori and Pacific educational achievement, achievement gaps persist the report said.

Act Party Leader David Seymour said “this was the one programme Hipkins was able to point to in May when I pressed him in Parliament for one example of a Labour policy delivering value for money – but the data shows he’s wrong.

“Jacinda Ardern’s pet project, overseen by Chris Hipkins when he was Education Minister, is not only assuming a job parents are responsible for, it’s wasting $25 million a year.

“Treasury has found that up to 10,000 ‘free’ school lunches are wasted each day. The cost of the programme in 2021 was $211 million, meaning up to $25 million was wasted on surplus lunches.

“Wasted lunches are given to families with pigs.

“Treasury also found no evidence the programme was improving attendance or benefiting Māori, who make up half students in the programme. 

“There’s no evidence that the one programme Chris Hipkins says is delivering value for money is actually doing so.

“A loaf of Nature’s Fresh Toast White Bread is $3.80 at Countdown. $25 million would buy almost 6.6 million loaves. Wasting that kind of money in a cost of living crisis is almost criminal.

“ACT told Labour way back in May 2021 that it needed to look at the evidence before it rushed this policy out. It needed to do detailed work on the problem it was trying to solve, not just throw around taxpayer’s money so people thought it was kind.

“This was a classic case of Instagram Prime Minister Jacinda Arden’s marketing stunts.

“The vast majority of parents can take care of their own kids. Politicians shouldn’t be taking over the job of parents. It sends the wrong message and undermines personal responsibility.

“No one will ever spend taxpayer’s money as carefully as their own.

“Interest rates are high because government spending is out of control. Spending has increased by $50 billion from when Labour entered Government in 2017, while net core Crown debt has increased by $97 billion.

“COVID-19 might have been when Grant Robertson shook off any fiscal restraint he had, but he hasn’t been able to pull back at all since then. The Government is forecast to borrow $24.5 billion in the years after COVID (2021/22-2023-24).

“A fiscally-responsible Government ACT is part of will take the pressure of inflation and let Kiwis keep more of their money through tax cuts. All that is needed is a bit of political fortitude.”