John Campbell has done excellent work on highlighting child poverty.
Last night he had a segment on Metiria Turei’s “Feed the Kids Bill“. The first reading of the Bill is scheduled to be debated in the House today (as far as can be predicted at the moment). The full official title of the Bill is the Education (Breakfast and Lunch Programmes in Schools) Amendment Bill.
The article accompanying the Campbell Live video of the segment says,
This was Hone Harawira’s Bill, but when he lost his seat the Greens picked it up.
It states that the board of a decile 1 or 2 school must provide a free breakfast and lunch to every person enrolled at the school on every day that the school is open for instruction.
But will it pass?
The 60 seats that the National Party holds, United Future leader Peter Dunne, and ACT’s David Seymour all look set to vote against it – meaning there will 62 votes for ‘no’.
John Campbell was surprised to see that NZ First would be voting for the Bill. Winston Peters says that there was food provided in schools when he was a boy, and there’s still a need for it. He says that the cost for the provision would be,
less than half the salary of the head of the ANZ Bank
Campbell interviewed Metiria Turei last night. In the interview (linked above) she says that people’s responses to Campbell Live’s coverage of the issue, showed Campbell Live and its viewers were committed to doing something to make sure children were not going hungry. She says this Bill is the political response to that commitment by New Zealanders.
The main message from the Campbell Live segment is that we really need the Bill to pass this reading, so that the Bill will go to the Select Committee. This will result in the issue being examined pretty thoroughly. It will provide an opportunity for Kiwis to have a say, and for solutions to be put on the table and discussed.
Why would John Key, National Patry MPs, and their two fellow travellers oppose the passing of the Bill to select committee? It’s far more useful and helpful to the well being of all of us, than spending $26 million on a couple of referendums on the NZ flag.
Thank you Metiria for picking up the Bill. A big thank you to Campbell Live.
And a big cheer for Hone Harawira for putting this Bill forward.
This is what a caring community does. Whatever our differences, we can work together on a practical issue for the good of the least well off and the least powerful. It is only a small part of the solution to a very deep problem. But ultimately working together on such issues benefits us all.
Update: Key’s war propaganda of fear, exaggeration and diversion does need to be debated. However, it means it is given priority to feeding the kids.
Key has chosen “terrorism” and the flag issue to foreground, rather than the well being of ordinary Kiwis and their children.
The Feed the Kids bill won’t come up tonight because of the 2 hour debate on Keys war statement. We have a few more weeks.
Powered by WPtouch Mobile Suite for WordPress