Turei Metiria: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeTurei Metiria: General Debate[Sitting date: 25 February 2015. Volume:703;Page:1913. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]METIRIA TUREI (Co-Leader—Green): Last night TV3’s Campbell Liveshowed us a side of New Zealand that frankly made me sick to my stomach and should make the National Government deeply ashamed. A class of 28 teenage girls at Kelston Girls’ College a very nice west Auckland high school were asked whether they had eaten breakfast and what they had in their bags for lunch. The result was that 18 girls had no lunch. That is right—18 out of 28 girls had nothing for their lunch and eight of them had had nothing for breakfast either. I find this hard to get my head around. Eighteen girls are expected to learn to focus and to function well in their school for the whole day and to come away with National Certificate of Educational Achievement success at the end of it when they have got grumbling tummies and have had nothing to eat. I find that staggering.I would like to know something. Since when did the idea of classrooms full of hungry kids become tolerable in a country like New Zealand? I just do not know what else to make of the Government’s blasé response to the numbers of kids turning up to school without food other than to assume that it thinks that that is OK. Well I will tell you what—kids going hungry for the whole day at school is not my new normal. Child hunger in this country is a national emergency and we today—today—can do something about it.Tonight it is likely my “Feed the Kids Bill” will come up in this House for debate and a vote. Before MPs vote on it I just want to say this: there is no reason on earth not to vote for my bill. If you do not like the idea of feeding kids lunch at school—if that grates with your sensibilities—then vote the bill down at the second reading or at the third reading. Do not deny Parliament the first real opportunity we have had to sit down with others across the political spectrum with experts with families and with schools to hear what the solutions are for this national emergency. That is what you will be doing if you vote the bill down. You will deny the House a unique and crucial opportunity to put politics aside and do something for our kids who are in need.I also want to say this to all MPs: when was the last time that you worked a whole day without having had anything to eat since breakfast? Do you think you could do your job if you did not eat something at morning tea or lunchtime? We all know that breakfast is not enough to get anyone through a whole day so let us not pretend that a bowl of Weet-Bix in the morning is enough to see our kids through a whole school day either. Kids need lunch—it is simple—like we all do.Last night we heard from KidsCan and the principal of Kelston Girls’ College that the problem of hunger in schools is increasing every day. It is not—with respect to the Prime Minister who has not visited many low-decile schools—a problem for the odd one or two.Hon Anne Tolley: Stop making it up. That’s not true.METIRIA TUREI: No—Julie Chapman from KidsCan said that around 22 percent of children in schools that she deals with are hungry every day. The number is up from 15 percent just a year earlier. Kelston Girls’ College is not an isolated story. The parents of the girls love their kids just as much as anyone in this House loves their own kids but the school principals are saying the parents just do not have as much money.It is a compassionate country that we live in—Aotearoa. We act before we judge people. When the earthquakes struck we acted to help people without judgment or favour. If a child falls over and is cut we help them regardless of why they were hurt. We act because we care for all the kids in this country. So today I am asking members across this House to have the guts to do what is really right and vote for the “Feed the Kids Bill”. Hungry kids are not the new normal in this country. It is a national emergency and tonight we all have the chance to do something about it. Thank you.