Former Labour Party leader David Shearer holds the energy and foreign affairs portfolios, but he's also pushing for free meals for some children through a private member's bill.
The Education (Food in Schools) Amendment Bill would allow decile 1 to 3 schools to become eligible for free breakfasts and lunches, as well as other schools that meet indicators developed by the Ministry of Health.
Mr Shearer submitted the bill while he was leader of the party, and it was drawn from the ballot last month.
But he now says he wants to make some changes to it before it goes up for its first reading. After talking to teachers and school nurses about the bill over the last couple of months, Mr Shearer says he's learned the "nutritional status of our kids in our schools is appalling".
"I would like to add to this bill before it comes into Parliament, to look at nutritious food and the way that kids are getting that sort of food in schools," he said on Firstline this morning.
This would be another way in which Mr Shearer's bill would differentiate itself from a similar effort from Mana Party leader Hone Harawira. Mr Shearer however believes his bill has a better chance of getting the Government's support.
"It's not about a blanket feeding programme across every school… I don't believe that's the right way to go forward. I still believe that it is parents' responsibility," says Mr Shearer.
"If Hone's comes up and we can work with it and take it through, we will work with it, but the indications are that the Government won't support it, so it'll fail on the first reading."
He admits his bill is a "bottom-of-the-cliff" response to a wider problem of parents not giving their children nutritious breakfasts and lunches.
"If parents aren't doing it, what are the reasons for it? Is it poverty? Is it neglect? Is it, like a lot of parents, getting up really early in the morning to go to work and their kids have to get themselves to school and they don't take a good lunch to school with them?
"What you don't want to do is to gloss over the problem by giving everybody breakfast in schools and actually ignoring what is really an important issue."
The Government currently helps fund a breakfast programme in lower decile schools run by private entities Fonterra and Sanitarium.
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source: newshub archive
