Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on Erica Stanford calling on David Seymour to address school lunch scheme shortfalls

The Opposition's sharpening its knives, as MPs continue to call out the Government over its school lunches programme.

Labour, the Greens and Te Pati Māori weren't pulling their punches in the House today, taking aim time and time again over the issue.

Education Minister Erica Stanford has called on David Seymour to explain some of the scheme's shortfalls.

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls says Seymour missed the meeting with Stanford yesterday. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Right now. Jason Will's news talks will be political. Edit
A Jason, good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Oh, good afternoon, Ryan.

Speaker 1 (00:04):
So what is going on here between these two?

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Well, so listen, there was supposed to be a meeting
and we got this out of Ericus Stamford this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:12):
I've asked David Seymour for a meeting this morning to
go through some of the issues on the school lunch program,
can make sure that they are being cleared up.

Speaker 2 (00:19):
So which issue, take your pick. There's quite a few,
so obviously the prime ministers are already talked to David
Seymour about this. Now, she is the Education Minister, he's
the Associate Education Minister, so essentially he has the front
up to her. So it's pretty cut and dry. So
where was Seymour? He did not show Here's what she

(00:39):
had Erica had to say about that.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
I was.

Speaker 2 (00:42):
I was in my office just after eleven thirty for
the meeting. Mark, you were there and he didn't show
us up.

Speaker 1 (00:46):
As I say, minister's diaries change all of the time.

Speaker 2 (00:50):
Meeting's shift. But we've rescheduled for tomorrow. So she's very
much playing it down, saying that they're going to meet tomorrow.
So what does David Seymour have to say.

Speaker 1 (00:57):
Well, the meetings was organized on the basis that we
both had to go to caucus. You can't really control
the timing. If it goes over, we couldn't meet.

Speaker 2 (01:05):
And that's what happened, you know, which could be fair enough.
But it was Erica Stanford that was the one this
morning actually told us that this was happening. And if
these meetings happen all the time, they don't technically tell us.
They'll give a blow by blow of every meeting that
happens around this place. So she was clearly trying to
make a point. And I know you can't really hear
it from that clip, but she will be quite frustrated.
I think a lot of Gnats are quite frustrated at

(01:27):
the fact that this is reflecting quite bad on the government. Now,
there's one interesting element to this, and that's the Prime Minister. Well,
there's many interesting elements, but the Prime Minister, and I'll
tell you what, his tone on this issue has shifted
quite a lot since he got back from Vietnam last week.
Last week. Listen to him on Hosking this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:43):
But look, here's the deal. I mean, if you don't
like the lunches, actually, just go make a mum might
sandwich and put an apple on the bag.

Speaker 2 (01:48):
Now here's what he said to reporters going into the
caucus meeting this morning.

Speaker 4 (01:51):
A loaf of bread, a jar and marmaid an apple
asn't rocket science. Actually appearents should take responsibility for providing
your lunches.

Speaker 1 (01:58):
In the first ince ofce adayad.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
And here's what he told the House.

Speaker 4 (02:01):
I do agree with the minister that there is actually
some some parental responsibility, some parental responsibility.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
So you can hear now that he's really moving into
it's the parent's responsibility to bring their if they you know, essentially,
if the kids don't like the lunches, it's the parent's
responsibility to front up with the lunches for the kids
at school. So I would expect to hear more of
that as these issues continue to be quite prevalent.

Speaker 1 (02:25):
Yeah, they obviously have workshopped this because Nikola Willis was
on the show last night saying she didn't say mar mate,
she said vegimite. The parents should be getting vegimie out
into the kid's lunches and make them yourselves. So it's
obviously something they've workshopped, a line that they're using, and
perhaps they've had polling on it, which might I.

Speaker 2 (02:43):
Would be surprised if there were. I mean, this is
really really hurting them.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
Do you think it's hurting them? Do you think it's
really hurting them? Or do you think most people are going?
For God's sakes, this is a storm and a tea cup.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
You know, well, I think there could be most. But
what it is is it's a distraction. It means that
the government isn't able to get the message that they
want about other things out there because this continues to
plague them. There's only so much space in people's minds
for political stories. And when you have a news story
like this that involves food, involves the politicians that you
know about, it involves somewhat of a I'm not going

(03:14):
to say scandal, but it involves somewhat of a shortcoming
that tends to be what people can remember. So it
does distract from the government's narrative that they want to
put out about other things.

Speaker 1 (03:23):
Now, the Treasuries come out and said today that they've
set aside three hundred million dollars for a potential break
fee for the fairy deal cancelation, but that doesn't mean
that's what we will pay, right, let's just set aside
at the stage.

Speaker 2 (03:34):
Indeed, So it's basically it's a contingent. And what we
learned this morning is that, you know, it's been hard
to get information out of this. So we had this
document dump about all this information about the ferries, including
the fact that they'd set aside three hundred million so
just as a by the bye. That includes extra infrastructure contracts,
completing some near finished items like mechanical depots and picked
in and the yet to be finished contract with Hyundai.

(03:58):
So it's not just the ships, it's everything that goes
around it as well. So the ships are just one
part of that component. But what we did learn today
is Winston or we did not last week. Winston was
meeting with the South Koreans in Hyundai last week, so
he was asked about that in the house today. Winston
peters by tongue Uta KEDI have a listen to what
he said.

Speaker 3 (04:17):
How confident is he that Hey Andi will put in
another contract bid for the new Cox Strait theories when
they are currently negotiating out of an existing contract with
his government I've.

Speaker 5 (04:28):
Got some good news for the member the head. See
why Park was delighted to meet us with his team.
We had a very very amiable and profitable discussion, and
we were delighted to learn of their renewed interest in
this tendering process.

Speaker 2 (04:45):
So renewed interest, profitable discussion really sounds like Hyundai a
back at the table, which is interesting because it raises questions.
You know, do we still have to pay the break
fee if we go back to the company that we
were negotiating with in the first place.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
Yeah, that would be the ideal, wouldn't it that we
would Winston would be Wiley, Winston would do some kind
of deal in which we reduce the break feed. We'd
get too smaller ferries, we use the two spots they
were originally going to have for the old theories. So
we don't waste any time and everyone's happy. But there's
a that's a lot of things to a lot of
ducks to get in a row, isn't it. Jason? Thank
you for that. Jason Wolves, whose News Talks eb's political editor.

Speaker 3 (05:22):
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