A Few Sandwiches Short Of A Picnic

Luxon offers Marmite-based solutions as Seymour hides from Erica Stanford.

You're like Marmite
Fickle to me
Mixed reception
No one can agree
Still so salty
Darkest energy
Think you're special
But you're no match for me

Song by Porij.

---

Morena, let’s not beat about the bush this morning, shall we? You and I both know we’re not here to discuss cornflakes, poached eggs, or buttered toast.

We’re here for one thing only: sandwiches, marmite ones, possibly with an apple, and for goodness sake, don’t mention David Seymour’s disastrous school lunches.

Image: BeFunky.

Of course, that was Christopher Luxon’s response to the news that said lunches were found to be not only gross, inappropriate for students' dietary requirements, late, or not being eaten, but also leaching god knows what chemicals into the food as the packaging started to merge with it, presumably in some vain hope of improving its nutritional qualities.

As reported by RNZ yesterday, in 'Collective nightmare': School lunches with melted plastic investigated, the Murchison Area School was provided with lunches in which the packaging melted into the food. Yummy.

Jokes aside, would you want your kids or mokopuna eating this just so that Seymour can save a few bucks?

Photo: RNZ / Murchison Area School.

Perhaps some context. The move to Seymour’s favoured lunch provider was on target last October to save $130m a year, although saying it was on target then doesn’t really mean much as it hadn’t even started. I’m guessing all those replacement pita pits, pies, and pizzas that schools are resorting to aren’t free.

On the other hand, the break fees from Nicola Willis’ tantrum, during which she stamped her feet and tore up the contract for the new ferries from Hyundai, the company that, as reported on 1 News last night, will probably end up providing them anyway, but presumably at a greater cost and/or for an inferior solution, were $300m.

So, to put it another way, our children have to eat this garbage for two and a half years to cover the costs of Nicola Willis’ petulant actions in cancelling a contract that never should have been broken.