David Seymour bites back at auditor-general over lunch report

Associate Education Minister David Seymour has questioned the Auditor-General's credibility after it raised alarm about the government's school lunch programme.

A report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday afternoon found the programme was saving money compared to Labour's approach but its performance was not being properly monitored or tracked.

It found half the meals did not meet nutrition standards last year - though they improved in terms three and four - and meals were increasingly being wasted.

The report also flagged concerns about how the new system was set up, including weak back-up planning and last-minute changes even after contracts had been signed.

The Auditor-General began investigating after complaints about the lunches' quality, timeliness, and appropriateness, as well as how costs were determined and how providers were selected.

Seymour, in charge of the programme, said the auditor-general's report was "half the story" because it assessed the current programme, but not Labour's version of it.

"If you were going to be open and honest about it, you would ask how many problems existed before I got involved," he said.

"I think the Auditor-General is facing some real credibility issues, and I think it's a shame, because it's a really important office in Parliament, but you just have to ask yourself, why would you evaluate the quality after I took over, but not before?"

Seymour said the Auditor-General was meant to ensure careful spending of taxpayer money.

"You get the feeling from this report that he would be happy if I just kept on spending an extra $360 million so long as we followed the right process," he said.

"Actually, we drove a hard bargain, we got a good deal."

'Upset' contractors behind report's findings - Seymour

Seymour said the report was driven by former Ministry of Education employees and people who lost their contracts when the delivery of it was centralised.

"What it reflects on is that a bunch of people who were upset because they are no longer working on this scheme, and who are no longer supplying school lunches at twice the price, are upset about the way we went about it," he said.

"Well, that's fine, but I stand by the fact that we saved $360 million for the taxpayer, that those young New Zealanders won't be paying off in government debt."

Labour's education spokesperson Ginny Andersen said the point of the programme was to ensure children were full and could learn at school.

"It's shocking that 50 percent of school lunches aren't even meeting nutritional value," she said.

"Taking away nutritional value means that there's a waste of food and it undermines the whole purpose of this programme."

Andersen said Labour would reinstate fresh, locally made school lunches, and she acknowledged it would be more expensive.

"We want them to be nutritionally good for children to eat, and we also want to make sure that they are consumed," she said.

"The level of waste right now reflects the fact that they're not good quality."

Labour's scheme would also create jobs that had been lost when local provider contracts were cancelled as the government shifted to a corporate model, Andersen said.