Hipkins promises end to ‘slop’ lunches, reveals 2020 tax support

Labour would bring back locally made school lunches from 2028 if elected and work to restore rural school bus routes, leader Chris Hipkins announced earlier today.

Later in the day, Hipkins also revealed he had privately backed campaigning on a capital gains tax ahead of the 2020 election, but then-PM Dame Jacinda Ardern ruled it out.

His party added the two commitments Hipkins announced today to its cost-of-living action plan amid a barrage of new policy over the past several weeks.

The plan also gathers earlier promises of three free GP visits a year, capped public transport fares and a three-year fuel tax freeze ahead of the November 7 election.

Under the plan, school kitchens, iwi and hapū partners or local caterers would make the meals from term one 2028. The programme would keep covering the 244,400 students at 1014 schools already in the scheme.

Labour would fund it at $5 a meal, or $6.50 for students in Years 9 to 13.

Speaking at a food warehouse in South Auckland, Hipkins said the coalition’s switch to a mass-produced model had failed.

“It’s resulted in kids getting food that’s not fit for purpose, basically inedible in many cases. We’re going back to a locally produced free and healthy school lunch model.”

Speaking in Birkenhead later in the day, he said thousands of jobs had been created under the original scheme, with some schools installing kitchens and employing parents.

“This government, in one fell swoop, did away with all of that," he said.

"They went to a mass-produced slop option for school lunches.

"Our kids got cheated out of having a good, healthy lunch."

It's notable however Labour’s fiscal plan does not fund the lunches beyond 2029/30 and Hipkins was asked whether that left a fiscal cliff for the next government. He said Labour had set up the original scheme as a pilot so it could work out the true cost.

“We’ll want to iron out all of the wrinkles in that, and then we will work out the best way of funding that sustainably. But we are committed to the school lunches programme.”

He said Labour would look at extending lunches to more students, or to every school, “over time”, but was not promising that this election.

At the Birkenhead meeting, Hipkins accused National of telling lies about Labour’s tax policy and defended its plan for a capital gains tax (CGT).

Asked by an audience member why the last Labour government had passed on a CGT, he revealed he had backed one ahead of the 2020 election.

Acknowledging Labour did not usually discuss internal decisions, he said he had supported the idea six years ago when publicly the then government did not.

“Internally, I was in favour of campaigning on a CGT in 2020," he said.

"We didn’t do that, obviously. We’ve always been clear that we will only make changes to the tax system that we have a public mandate for. And Jacinda didn’t want to campaign on that in 2020, and so she ruled that out.”

Dame Jacinda had ruled out a capital gains tax under her leadership in 2019.

"In 2023, we ran out of time. Basically, by the time I had taken over from Jacinda, it was too late to be able to campaign properly on a CGT."

He said Labour had announced its policy last November because it needed at least a year to explain what was in it and push back on what he called a scare campaign.

The tax would apply to residential property, excluding the family home, and commercial property with all the revenue going into health.

At the public meeting, Hipkins also signalled Labour had a further policy to help first-home buyers still to come.

Finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds said Labour had set also aside about $5 million a year to restore rural school bus routes, but the figure could change.

“We need all the information, and it was really difficult to get that information out of government being in opposition.”

Hipkins said the money sat in the fiscal plan’s unallocated “future announcements” line.

Where Labour could not restore a route, it would work with rural communities and councils to find another way to get children to school.

“For those families sending their kids to school in rural communities, those are such a vital connection for them,” he said.

In response National's campaign spokesperson Simeon Brown said Labour’s plan on cost of living wouldn't come free.

“Labour’s promises aren’t free. They come with $18.8 billion in extra spending, and every Kiwi household will pay for it through higher taxes and higher inflation," he said.

“Only National has a long-term plan to grow the economy so wages rise faster than inflation, while keeping spending under control with no new taxes.”

Hipkins also confirmed Labour would not revive its 2023 pledge of free early childhood education for two-year-olds.

He said Labour would keep the coalition’s FamilyBoost rebate instead, because the coalition had moved the childcare funding into that scheme.

“The families who are getting that rebate at the moment are finding that useful. I don’t want to take that away from them.”

Hipkins also responded to NZ First’s pledge to lift the minimum wage by at least the rate of inflation for the next three years.

He said the minimum wage had been cut in real terms over the past three years while NZ First was in government, with Winston Peters deputy PM for half of that time.