Queensland parents heading to the polls in a couple of weeks may have lunch on their minds, with Premier Steven Miles unveiling a policy platform of free school lunches for primary school kids.
It’s a plan that could win over the hearts and minds of parents in different ways. One is the money they’ll save on school lunches ($1600 a year, according to estimates), and the second is the time and energy they’ll put into making those lunches.
And for kids, it’s a plan that aims to get them fed at school, ensuring no child is left behind in getting a healthy lunch option every day, with benefits they can arguably carry for the rest of their lives (assuming the options do end up being healthy). Miles described the policy as “educational health” in outlining the plan on Sunday, saying it’s good for kids, teachers, and parents.
Provided Monday to Friday for parents who want to access the food for their kids, the policy is estimated to cost $350 million a year if Labor is reelected. It also comes in addition to several other cost-of-living measures Labor is promising, including cutting transport tickets to 50 cents a ride, offering $200 to parents for children’s sports activities, $1000 energy rebates for households and a daily cap on petrol price increases of no more than 5 centres a litre.
Currently, Miles is on the ropes for the upcoming election, with polling suggesting opposition leader David Crisafulli will sweep the Liberal National Party to victory – although his party candidates are increasingly getting asked more questions about abortion, which is “becoming an issue”.
Economists are calling out the spending in the Miles free lunch plan, saying it adds to the state’s debt burden and makes reducing inflation more difficult.
But $350 million a year is regularly spent by state governments on far less worthy items.
The plan should be positioned more as an investment than a cost. An investment in ensuring kids get the best start needed at school – with their nutrition needs met along with further potential benefits, such as a greater understanding of preparing and consuming healthy foods, a lesson they can carry for a lifetime, reducing rates of heart disease and diabetes later on. Chef Jamie Oliver notes the benefits of free lunches regularly in the media, with his “Feed the Future” campaign, calling for more kids to be eligible for free school lunches across the UK.
Oliver’s argument centres around the idea that “nourishing young minds with nutritious food is an investment in their future, boosts our economy and our health.”
A “free lunch” policy is the kind of bold thinking idea that demonstrates there are still bolding thinking ideas available in politics today from the big parties. However, in this case, this policy idea has already come up in Queensland – in 2021, when Greens MP Amy McMahon introduced a private members’ motion for such a policy that Labor voted down. Miles has attempted to counter claims of plagiarism by saying that things have changed since 2021, including the fact he is now premier.
McMahon has described the policy announcement as a “huge win” in the Greens’ campaign to provide free meals to Queensland state school students, saying they have been pushing for such a program since 2020 — and running one in their own electorates. She said on Sunday the Greens will keep pushing to make free lunches a reality and expand the program to high schools, which are currently excluded in the Labor plan.
“But most importantly, this makes it crystal clear: pressure works,” McMahon said. “With Labor at risk of losing Greens seats, they’ve shown up at the 11th hour and are finally on board with free meals programs.”