Dianne
J. Ma, Auckland
University of Technology and Rob
Richardson, Auckland
University of Technology
Aotearoa New
Zealand produces enough food annually to feed
40 million people – most of it exported. Yet it is
estimated one in three households experience some form of hunger
or food insecurity.
In general, food insecurity
describes the hard financial choices some people have to
make between paying for housing, energy, transport or food.
It can mean families skipping meals, parents going without
so children can eat, and children whose only meal might be a
school-provided lunch.
The problem has been
exacerbated by soaring
food prices caused by global disruption of supply chains
and rising fuel costs. Climate change and extreme weather
events can exacerbate
the problem.
Advertisement – scroll to continue reading
Meanwhile, household
incomes have stagnated relative to inflation. The
availability and consumption of ultra-processed
foods grows, and with it the impact of diet-related
disease.
While these problems are often
reported and analysed individually, cumulatively they
contribute to a bigger picture of food security that
deserves greater scrutiny.
In 2023, the Public
Health Advisory Committee was tasked by the then Labour-led
government to investigate the national food system. The
committee’s Rebalancing
Our Food System report put forward five key
recommendations:
-
develop a unified food
system for all New Zealanders -
ensure
local parts of the food system meet the needs and
aspirations of those communities -
central
and local governments use legislation, policy and regulation
levers to create and foster healthy food environments for
all New Zealanders -
address food
insecurity through coordinated support and community-level
food access initiatives -
ensure the work
of transforming the food system is accompanied by a
programme of data collection, research, monitoring and
surveillance.
The report, presented
to the current government in May 2024, offered a framework
to build a more equitable and healthier food system.
With the general election due, we reviewed the
positions of the six political parties elected to parliament
in 2023 (hence the absence of the Opportunity Party in our
analysis), relative to the committee’s five
recommendations.
These positions were evaluated
using each party’s own websites and press releases, along
with media statements. The table below provides an overview
of what we found.
parties elected in 2023 align with the Public Health
Advisory Committee’s 5-point plan.
Rudraksh
Kalose, CC
BY-NC-SA
National
National has no specific
food policy.
As part of a coalition agreement with
ACT in 2024, it agreed to cut
up to NZ$145 million from the Ka Ora, Ka
Ako school lunch budget.
However, $38 million
over four years is budgeted for the Food
Secure Communities and Kickstart Breakfast
scheme.
National’s response to increased food
prices focuses on the structural
separation of the Foodstuffs supermarket
chains.
Labour
Labour’s policy
platform focuses more on costs and social protection than on
a holistic food system.
It introduced the now
disestablished Te
Aka Whai Ora (Māori Health Authority) which took an
integrated approach towards Māori health that included
aspects of food sovereignty.
Labour has pledged to
bring back the original Ka Ora, Ka Ako school lunches model,
and to crack down on grocery
price gouging by separating wholesale supply businesses
from supermarket retailers.
New Zealand
First
New Zealand First has no specific food
policy, but the party acknowledges food affordability is a
part of the cost-of-living crisis. The party’s three-pronged
approach to supermarket intervention is its most visible
position on food systems.
The party also noted in
its coalition
report that it had abolished Te Aka Whai Ora as part of
the coalition agreement with National and
ACT.
Green Party
The Green Party’s manifesto
contains a comprehensive and detailed food policy
which aligns most closely with the Public Health Advisory
Committee’s cohesive food strategy.
Its health
policy also promises to “increase the affordability of
healthy foods and restrict the marketing, distribution and
affordability of unhealthy and processed foods and
beverages”.
The party is campaigning on a
strategy for lowering
food prices, including the establishment of a
government-owned supermarket chain to drive
competition.
The party supports increased food
security with a detailed “reforming
the food system” plan that includes an expanded free
school lunch service.
ACT
ACT’s constitutional
values are ideologically opposite to active government
intervention in food environments.
The party led
the reduction of the Ka Ora, Ka Ako budget, with plans to
further reduce it in 2027. It also led the disestablishment
of Te Aka Whai Ora, stating the authority operated in
opposition to the party’s “one
law for all” policy.
Although ACT
acknowledges grocery prices are too high, it has argued that
breaking up the supermarket duopoly is unethical
and likely to harm only New Zealand-owned
Foodstuffs.
The party supports food
producers as an industry, but does not emphasise reform
to the food system.
Te Pāti Māori
Te
Pāti Māori’s constitution
doesn’t directly address food initiatives, but specific
policies are strongly aligned with the Public Health
Advisory Committee’s framework.
These include
Māori-centred food
sovereignty, affordable
food and climate
resilience.
The party is campaigning for a Māori
education authority to expand school lunches, and a tax
plan with targeted credits “equivalent to eight weeks
of kai [food]” aimed at encouraging holistic Māori
wellbeing.
Making food an issue
The
Public Health Advisory Committee report was framed as an
opportunity to address some of the challenges facing the
national food system.
It was based on the premise
that access to food is a basic human right and an equitable
food system will see better health
outcomes.
However, there is little political
consensus on what a fair and healthy food system should
actually look like. Party political ideologies variously
favour market-driven, interventionist, preventative or
reactive strategies.
With the election weeks away,
voters have the opportunity to decide which aisle they’re
standing in and which political brand they are
buying.
From the cost of living and a
health system under extreme pressure to how best to tackle
climate change, the coming election involves some big
choices.
This article is part of The
Conversation’s Election
2026 series: expert analysis of the major policy debates
and the big challenges New Zealand’s next government will
face.
Dianne
J. Ma, Lecturer in Culinary Arts & Gastronomy, Auckland
University of Technology and Rob
Richardson, Senior Lecturer in Culinary Arts &
Gastronomy, Auckland
University of Technology
This
article is republished from The Conversation
under a Creative Commons license. Read the original
article.
