Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP will today join Member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather and Senator Penny Allman-Payne to launch the Greens' plan for free school meals across the country.
Since Max Chandler-Mather's election in 2022, Max's Griffith electorate office has served 40,000 free school meals across a weekly breakfast program in four public schools in the electorate. The programs are funded by Max's MP salary.
Teachers in Griffith have reported that on days with free school breakfast, students are more focussed on learning and better behaved.
In addition to alleviating cost of living pressures, school meals have been shown to improve kids' attendance, classroom attention, cognition, academic performance, social skills, nutrition and overall health. They're also a significant preventive action for youth crime, keeping vulnerable kids in school and out of the youth justice system.
The Greens have put forward a costed plan that would see every public school funded to provide a nutritious lunch to every student. To achieve this aim, the PBO has estimated it would be a cost to the budget of $11.6b over the forward estimates which is less than the budget currently spends on fossil fuel subsidies. The Greens will also invest $85m annually to expand existing free breakfast programs in schools across the country.
This is on top of school policies previously announced, including an annual back-to-school payment of $800 made to families at the start of the school year for each child attending a public school; abolishing public school fees and charges to make public schools genuinely free; and fully-funding public schools to 100% Schooling Resource Standard in 2026.
This massive boost for families would be funded by making big corporations pay their fair share of tax. The previously announced Big Corporations Tax frees up $514 billion across the decade to help fund dental into Medicare, free and universal childcare and free school lunches
As stated by Leader of the Australian Greens Adam Bandt MP:
"In a wealthy country like ours, no kids should go to school hungry.
"Peter Dutton wants free lunches for CEOs, the Greens want free lunches for school kids.
"Under Labor and Liberal, 1 in 3 big corporations pays no tax while parents struggle with the cost of living.
"The Greens will tax big corporations and billionaires so kids can get free lunch at school. If you're worried about the cost of living, we can't keep voting for the same two parties and expecting a different result.
"If Brisbane voters keep Brisbane Green they can keep Peter Dutton out and get Labor to act on the cost of living crisis."
As stated by Greens spokesperson on Primary & Secondary Education, Senator Penny Allman-Payne:
"A universal program of school lunches in every public school will ease the cost-of-living burden on families, improve the health and well-being of our kids, and help level the playing field for our most disadvantaged students.
"As a former teacher, I know that kids learn better on a full stomach. This will improve attention and behaviour in the classroom, and enable kids to engage and get the most out of school.
"Imagine sending your child off to school each day knowing they'll receive a nutritious lunch - one that you didn't have to pay for and prepare each morning.
"Every child deserves a free, world-class public education, and that's what the Greens are committed to delivering."
As stated by Greens MP for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather:
"This is what politics should be about: leaders putting their money where their mouth is, and making a difference in ordinary people's lives."
"My team and I run a free school breakfast program for two reasons: the first is that while we fight for the changes we need in Canberra so that everyone has what they need to live a good life, we believe it's important that we do everything we can to support people in their everyday lives in the here and now.
"The second is to demonstrate that if we can serve 40,000 free school meals out of just our electoral office and an MPs salary, there's no reason that the federal government couldn't roll a program like this out right across the country."
"Since my election in 2022 we've built the program up into four local public schools, and hope to grow with an additional two local schools before the end of the year."
