The Greens are demanding credit for Queensland Labor’s last minute ‘promise’ to spend $1.4 billion providing ‘free’ lunches to primary schools across the state.
It is a strange thing to offer the electorate during a financial crisis.
Labor might see it as a vote-winning gift to struggling parents, but most taxpayers, including parents who prefer to feed their own children, might view it as being robbed by Labor to provide food for other people’s children.
As an ‘opt-in’ service, not only does the policy fail to target the small number of students who might benefit, it leaves itself open to being a massive and unnecessary drain on the wider community.
Australia has long been of the opinion that if you are going to have children, you should be responsible for feeding them. Otherwise, why do we have such a generous welfare system with allowances for parents?
The policy is expected to ‘save’ parents $1,600 per child, per year, and apply to 326,000 children.
Schools already have tuckshops. There is food available on pretty much every street in the state. If children do not have access to lunch in a first world nation such as Australia, questions need to be asked of the parents – not the taxpayer.
How far will this ‘free lunch’ system go when the Premier is already talking about ‘vegan, gluten-free, and allergy-friendly options’? How long before the government seeks virtue points from the United Nations by making school lunches ‘plant-based’ or ‘lab-grown’ to serve the government’s climate goals rather than the nutritional requirements of children?
Will school lunches mimic those ridiculous COP conference menus which assign carbon credit points to each meal?
Do we honestly want to go down the path of putting politicians in charge of food when their curriculum has caused the fastest decline in education this country has ever seen?
It feels like another way for the state to become ‘the parent’ of Queensland’s children when the real problem is the excessive government spending leading to punitive taxes.
High food prices are one of the biggest pressures families are facing right now.
That means too many kids are going to school hungry.
You can’t learn when you’re hungry.
That’s why Labor will create a universal school lunch program at State Primary Schools.
— Steven Miles (@StevenJMiles) October 12, 2024
The solution seems obvious – the government should stop spending money and lower taxes.
Naturally, Premier Steven Miles – who has been ‘auditioning’ for power – appears to be taking the advice of fringe socialist joke political parties instead of tightening the belts of his over-fed government departments.
The Greens, in addition to claiming credit for the program, are under the impression that extending the free food to high school students represents a valid plan to address the major criminal problem among the youth in Brisbane. Are teenagers stealing cars and going for joyrides because they are hungry?
‘Labor only shows up when their electorates start voting Greens,’ said Amy MacMahon, the Greens MP for South Brisbane. ‘We know kids around grade 8-10 are at a high risk of disengagement from school, and that’s a major risk factor for offending, so Greens MPs will make sure free meals includes high schools to improve attendance and engagement, and reduce crime.’
As soon as the Greens started talking, Mr Miles distanced himself, confirming his policy did not extend to high school students and presumably isn’t part of any policy to address criminal behaviour.
‘I don’t spend too much time looking at the Greens’ policies. I think they also have a policy to give everyone a free unicorn. This is school lunches because it’s something that I’m passionate about.’
It is interesting that the Labor Premier has chosen to throw shade not only at the Greens individually, but as a party in general considering the Labor Party – in all its forms – is currently Blu-Tacked into power on the whim of Greens voters.
Maybe Labor believes it no longer needs the gangrenous arm of far-left politics. Labor might even go so far as to say the Greens are starting to damage the Labor brand.
Mr Miles added that his school lunches policy was ‘good for kids, good for teachers, and good for parents’ (no doubt the same parents who are thoroughly sick of teachers policing lunchboxes and throwing tantrums at the presence of a cupcake).
‘It’s universal to avoid stigmatising the kids that need food the most, but also to ensure that it supports every Queensland family.’
School lunches are also, with very few exceptions, notorious for contributing to the deteriorating health of Western children. Mr Miles says he will make sure the meals are nutritious, but the real world suggests that these are empty words and a future broken promise.
Deputy Leader of the Opposition Jarrod Bleijie called the random and rushed policy ‘desperate’ while Opposition Leader David Crisafulli wondered how far Labor would be prepared to raise taxes to pay for it.
‘How much taxes under Labor are going to go up to pay for this borrow-to-buy-burgers in school policy?’
Mr Bleijie added, ‘Make no mistake, under the Labor Party, there is no such thing as a free lunch … [just because Mr Miles] makes a sandwich on TikTok, he’s going to run cafes in schools across Queensland. They have pinched a Greens’ policy that the Labor Party in Parliament voted against not long ago.’