8. METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader - Green) to the Prime Minister : Does he stand by all his statements?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister): Yes.

Metiria Turei : Does the Prime Minister stand by his statement that the principals of low-decile schools he has visited have told him “The number of children in those schools who actually require lunch is the odd one or two.”?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Yes.

Metiria Turei : Does the Prime Minister still stand by his statement that only one or two kids in low-decile schools need lunch, when the principal of Kelvin Road School in Papakura, a decile 1 school, says he feeds 50 to 60 kids lunch every day?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : There will always be exceptions to the rule, but I can only report to the member the anecdotal statements made by principals to me, and I stand by that statement.

Metiria Turei : Does the Prime Minister still stand by his statement that only one or two kids in low-decile schools need lunch, when the principal of Cosgrove Primary School in Papakura says he feeds, on average, 40 children lunch every day?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : In answer to the first part of the question, yes.

Metiria Turei : I seek leave to table an email received by the Green Party office from the principal of Cosgrove Primary School, saying that of the current—

Mr SPEAKER : Order! The document has been described. I will put the leave. Leave is sought to table that particular document received by the Green Party. Is there any objection to it being tabled? There is none; it can be.

• Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.

Metiria Turei : Does the Prime Minister still stand by his statement that only one or two kids in low-decile schools need lunch, when the principal of Windley School in Porirua says there are three or four kids in each of his 14 classes without lunch every day?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Yes. There are approximately 2,550 schools in New Zealand. In the time that I have been the Prime Minister, I have been a prolific visitor to schools, and for the last at least 3 or 4 years, from memory, I have asked this particular question to pretty much every principal I have seen. The feedback that I constantly get from them is that the extension of breakfast in schools under a National-led Government has been a good project. The extension of fruit in schools has been a good project, and while they offer breakfast in schools to—

Hon Annette King : It wasn’t an extension; it was a continuation. You just continued it.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : No, it was extended. Keep up; it was an extension. If you look—

Hon Annette King : No it wasn’t. You were going to get rid of it. You were going to dump it. You’re on your high horse.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : You go off and be Mayor of Wellington and Phil can be Mayor of Auckland.

Mr SPEAKER : Order! [Interruption] If the Hon Annette King wishes to remain in the Chamber, please cease when I rise to my feet. Would both the Prime Minister and the Hon Annette King stop the interaction and exchange across the House. If the Prime Minister wishes to complete his answer, would he do so.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : In discussions with those principals, what is clear is that, because they do not want to stigmatise children who might go on a breakfast in schools programme, they offer it, generally speaking, to every child in the school. On average the feedback that they give me is that about half the children go on the breakfast in schools programme as a starting point, and over time that number reduces, more often than not, to a core group of about 10 or 15. They then make sure there is also food for them at lunch if they want it. The advice of the principals that I have spoken to—and I have been to a huge range of schools—is that very few do.

Metiria Turei : Could it be that his lack of accurate information about the needs of children in low-decile schools is because according to his own diary he has visited three times as many decile 9 and 10 schools as he has decile1 and 2—three times as many—since June of last year and therefore does not have accurate information?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Firstly, that looks very much like National’s election results—going up. The second thing is that what the member asked me—

Dr David Clark : No arrogance there.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : No, it is just a statement of fact, actually. The second thing is that if the member wants to go and—she is more than welcome to, of course—table the written question that she asked me, the reason she did not bother to read that out in the House is that she would be reading it out for a very long time, because it was a couple of pages of schools that I visited in that very short period of time. It may have missed—

Hon Member : One page—

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Well, you might print in size 6 font, but the way I signed it out, it was much broader than that. And, secondly, I have been the Prime Minister since 2008—

Hon Members : We know.

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : Yeah, I know. Do not worry—many more years to come, too.

Metiria Turei : I seek leave of the House to table what I understand is a currently unpublished answer to a written question showing the number of schools that the Prime Minister has visited since—

Mr SPEAKER : Order! I will put the leave. [Interruption] Order! Would the member resume her seat? Would the member resume her seat. Thank you. On the basis that it is at this stage unpublished, I will put the leave and the House can decide. Leave is sought to table an answer to a written question yet to be published. Is there any objection? There is none. It can be tabled.

• Document, by leave, laid on the Table of the House.

Metiria Turei : In light of the evidence from principals and organisations that feed kids lunch every day in their schools of the huge need for a school lunch programme, will he support the “Feed the Kids Bill” to select committee so that we can have a conversation about how to feed hungry kids in schools?

Rt Hon JOHN KEY : No, and this Government does not need another conversation about this. This Government needs to continue to implement the very far-reaching policies it has been implementing in this area and in others to support those children. We are doing that, but I do not believe that getting into a position where we provide lunch for everyone in decile 1 and decile 2 schools in New Zealand will be the best use of those resources. I think we should target those children, but that is ultimately what happens at the moment.