Andrew Dickens: Targeted school lunches is the way to go

Early Edition with Ryan Bridge · Mar 16, 2025 · 2m · transcript

Last week as the world puzzled over war and peace and the end of globalisation and rules based free trade, New Zealand was watching the slow-motion train wreck of a free lunch programme.

David Seymour, a long-term opponent of the idea, was put in charge of it by the Prime Minister Christopher Luxon. Which may have been a genius political move but may rebound in his face.

The Act Leader then reckoned he could centralise it and cut costs until each lunch cost 3 dollars a child.

But the providers had problems. None more so than Libelle who went bust and we finished the week bringing in lunches…