Greens Leader Adam Bandt MP joined Member for Griffith Max Chandler-Mather and Senator Penny Allman-Payne to launch the election promise.
Since Chandler-Mather’s election in 2022 his electorate office has served more than 40,000 free school meals across a weekly breakfast program in four public schools in the electorate. The programs are funded by the member’s MP salary.
“This is what politics should be about: leaders putting their money where their mouth is, and making a difference in ordinary people’s lives,” he said.
“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.”
The Greens say school meals have been shown to improve kids’ attendance, classroom attention, cognition, academic performance, social skills, nutrition and overall health.
Chandler-Mather says teachers in Griffith have reported that on days with free school breakfast, students are more focussed on learning and better behaved.
“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,” he shared.
In addition to alleviating cost of living pressures, The Greens said school meals have been shown to improve kids’ attendance, classroom attention, cognition, academic performance, social skills, nutrition and overall health.
They’re also, they said, a significant preventive action for youth crime, keeping vulnerable kids in school and out of the youth justice system.
Allman-Payne said a universal program of school lunches in every public school will ease the cost-of-living burden on families, improve children’s health and wellbeing, and help level the playing field for the nation’s 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?
Bandt said in a wealthy country like Australia, 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.
The Greens said they 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 said they 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 per cent Schooling Resource Standard in 2026.
The Greens said this “massive boost for families” would be funded by making so-called big corporations pay their fair share of tax.
The previously announced Big Corporations Tax, the Greens said, frees up $514 billion across the decade to help fund dental into Medicare, free and universal childcare and free school lunches.
