5. Question No. 5—Prime MinisterHon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Prime MinisterQuestion No. 5—Prime Minister5. Hon NIKKI KAYE (National—Auckland Central) to the Prime Minister: Does she stand by all her Government's policies and actions?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN (Prime Minister): Welcome to contestant number three! Yes the Government is making progress on the long-term challenges facing New Zealand and that includes helping to break the cycle of educational underachievement by providing lunches in schools to 20000 children and 120 schools by the start of 2021. We are scrapping school donations and removing NCEA fees. We've invested $1.2 billion in building new schools and classrooms for 100000 students in over 10 years. We've improved our skilled workforce through reforming vocational education and training. We're expanding our Mana in Mahi places by 2000 and we're rolling out the first tranche of learning support coordinators for children in more than 1000 schools and kura.Hon Nikki Kaye: Can she confirm that she received advice regarding the Government's free lunch policy to use well-established providers such as KidsCan and KickStart and that she ignored that advice?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: Actually my recollection is in the conversations that were had with officials we discussed the dual benefit of enabling schools to determine for themselves how they would roll out these programmes. This is about autonomy and choice. Some schools may choose to use providers some may choose to use their own community and provide it within kitchens if they have it or they may choose to work with local marae—it's about giving schools the choice around how they provide this. We're starting small so we can work through those choices with them.Hon Nikki Kaye: Can she confirm that more than 60 schools had to be approached to take part in her Kiwi lunch programme because the original 30 have not come on board?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No.Hon Nikki Kaye: Can she confirm that the Government's had to change its Kiwi lunch policy just weeks after she announced the initiatives due to schools' concerns about the infrastructure funding being inadequate?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No. We've always acknowledged in the funding of the programme that there would be room available for small capital needs that might be needed to be able to ensure the provision of the lunches in schools programme but there was never funding made for instance for full commercial kitchens. This is about utilising the resource around the school community and what's available within the school. If the member stands opposed to the idea of feeding kids in schools in some of our most deprived parts of the country that is absolutely her and her party's prerogative. This is a programme that we are immensely proud of. We are starting with a number of schools to get the design right and I'm confident we will. I reflect on the Sunset Primary School where the primary school principal there said they were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to feed their kids every day and that's what this is about.Hon Nikki Kaye: Is she aware that local bakeries and a marae have been approached to provide the lunches but they have declined because they do not have capacity and is it true that local Pita Pit and Subway have also raised issues regarding a Kiwi lunch programme?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: The idea that we can't muster together a nutritious lunch for school children in a small part of the country is absolutely ridiculous. We're not starting the roll-out until the beginning of next year. We're working closely with schools to design this in a way that meets their community needs in a way that supports their community offers the win-win of an extra boost in employment in the area and also feeds kids. Yes we've had one school of 70 students say that they would rather use KidsCan but that's a matter for them.Rt Hon Winston Peters: Is this the first time she's heard of the suggestion of propping up a foreign-owned franchise called Subway?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: In the briefings that I've had I've been advised that schools are wholeheartedly behind this programme. I've acknowledged the one case where one kura is choosing to continue to use KidsCan on a limited basis and that's their call. We are working in consultation with schools.Hon Chris Hipkins: Is the Prime Minister concerned that the delivery of school lunches by schools might result in a smaller market share for Subway Pita Pit McDonald's KFC and all of the other fast-food providers?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: No but I also want to acknowledge that in some of the areas that we're looking to work in there are no such franchises. Hon Nikki Kaye: Will she guarantee she will not roll out her free lunch policy to 2500 schools at an estimated cost of about a billion dollars given the issues of capacity infrastructure and the fact that a number of schools don't want to be part of her pilot?Rt Hon JACINDA ARDERN: What I can guarantee is we're not going to stand by and let kids be hungry while we have the possibility to roll out a programme like this.