📢 The Auditor General will conduct an inquiry into the Ministry of Education's school lunch programme. It will cover planning, procurement, and contract...

Had a blast (and went right outside of my comfort zone) working on this video about school lunches and the multinational business at the heart of it all with Garth Bray. No paywall on this one! www.youtube.com/watch?v=Huov...

Good question. Not been able to get an answer so far though.

Securing the revamped school-lunch contract was “critical for the viability of Libelle”, and could push the company to make “commitments they are unable to deliver on”, officials warned last year. 1/4 businessdesk.co.nz/article/inve...

Would an anti-"woke" banking law change how banks lend when it comes to heavy emitters and climate risk? - audio from Morning Report today embedded with the web story here - www.rnz.co.nz/news/busines...

Remembering the lives lost, the injuries, all those who suffered the trauma of the Ōtautahi mosque massacres.

Whoever did this website - good work. www.seymourslop.nz Frozen food to a school w/o heating facilities today was more brilliant public-private market work from the libertarian party. Last week they were burning kid's skin off, sending them to ED. This week, it's stone cold and frozen. #nzpol

ACC staff are not happy, which is why more tips keep coming in. That right there should be indicative to management of serious problems. Here’s a wrap of where things are at after three weeks of reporting these issues.

The Compass Group has bought Libelle’s school lunch operations under a conditional sale. Will be interesting to explore the role the school lunch contract has played in Libelle’s demise.

Loss of Libelle leads to drop in quality, schools to close canteens with short notice www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

"Maybe this is a short-term fix," he said, adding that Seymour was "fully accountable" for the programme's delivery. "He's working hard at it, so let him close it out."

“The child opened a meal yesterday & a couple of flies came out...it looked disgusting...We don’t know where the flies are from. Some schools have meals coming from Australia - what if something gets through?” open.substack.com/pub/emilywri...

some great reporting from @cecilemeier.bsky.social on the school lunch procurement process, and how the school lunch collective got chosen in the first place -- one that paints the more interesting story imo

How can this make sense financially? Not to mention all the local jobs that were lost in the shift to Compass. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

My school uses Subway & Pita Pit for (parent-bought) school lunches, and it’s pretty expensive. Don’t get much for $10. Still MUCH nicer than the Compass meals, and would probably be cheaper if done en masse.

Serious questions about the procurement process that awarded the revamped school lunch programme to Compass and Libelle need to be answered. Today, we reveal: - Pita Pit and Subway were jointly the runner up for the revamped school lunch contract last year but would not do it for less than $4.

Libelle has gone into liquidation. The company is making most of the meals distributed by the School Lunch Collective. It will be a challenge for Compass to find an alternative caterer able and willing to provide about 125,000 lunches daily for $3. More to come. businessdesk.co.nz/article/reta...

None of this will be news to most of you, but I think it would surprise the average person how immediate the implications of climate change are for house prices Audio from this morning 📻 here - > Insurers look to price in climate change with individual risk ratings www.rnz.co.nz/national/pro...

Puzzling that Compass - a global catering giant - needs to be told by MOE that you can't heat plastic-clad meals in a commercial oven. Also puzzling that it took MOE about 2 weeks to tell them to stop doing that despite multiple media reports on this very issue. www.rnz.co.nz/news/nationa...

Good to see the Ministry of Education and David Seymour taking this seriously. MPI has been investigating the School Lunch Collective for a range of food safety issues, incl. meals arriving too hot - it feels like this incident could have been prevented: www.stuff.co.nz/nz-news/3606...

Why, just why, what utter stupidity - this is not how we protect our precious tamariki.

Bit of a theme going on

Government officials raised concerns about Compass and Libelle after hearing the companies were shortlisted to provide the revamped school lunch programme last year. www.nzherald.co.nz/business/off...

Guess who's going to do a war crimes reporting masterclass at Nerd Disneyland in NYC? Thanks, BGI!

"The National Party's pre-election commitment promised to improve outcomes for Māori, but the coalition agreements showed otherwise, Alexander said." www.stuff.co.nz/pou-tiaki/13...

An excellent piece from @cecilemeier.bsky.social via BusinessDesk-$$$ this morning on our how captured state deals with workplace safety and complying with employment law. businessdesk.co.nz/article/inve...

Was digging around polling booth results looking for interesting booths - but this is what I found. www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/election-... 'Full check': Electoral Commission reviewing voting results after Herald identifies error

A regulator actually doing their job (paywalled Nippert) 🇳🇿

Great piece of journalism, which highlights (again) the risks to the integrity of policy making. Seems Ministers bought the industry line that a deposit scheme would add to the public’s cost of living. Industry profits being reduced through no longer externalising costs seems more likely to me.

It seemed like a no-brainer. The public wanted it. Local governments wanted it. Major political parties supported it. It would reduce littering, slash the amount of waste going to landfills, and boost NZ’s poor recycling rate. businessdesk.co.nz/article/envi...

Rather than debate issues seriously, the parties have chosen to muddy the waters. Throwing everything at one another to see what sticks crowds out even the attacks that matter. www.newsroom.co.nz/labour-and-n...

Cannot wait to see the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into Why the Corrupt MSM Give the Rt Hon St Winston Peters Such a Hard Time.

Super late night last night pulling this together about the first debate. A bit of a different look at the performance of the two leaders. #nzpol www.rnz.co.nz/news/electio...

I've always wanted to be an early adopter of something.