A trio of Year 11 students travelled to Wellington this week to see a petition written by Matilda Otter-Lowe tabled in Parliament on 24 June.

The student-led petition urging the Government to reinstate the previous school lunches programme gained 1,687 signatures. It calls for a return to the “locally-made, tasty and nutritious” meals delivered by the previous programme. 

The petition attracted media attention with articles published on The Spinoff and ‘Stuff’ websites. It is part of an ongoing campaign begun last year by a group of Year 11 social studies students who decided to protest against the changes to lunches - at that stage only proposed by ACT Party leader David Seymour.

Matilda Otter-Lowe says visiting Parliament was “a really cool opportunity” but the students weren’t too impressed with the behaviour of MPs in the Chamber during Question Time. “It was actually awful; really antagonistic. It just doesn’t seem like a good system to get anything done,” she says. “I’d seen it on TV before but seeing it in person was really confronting.” However, the experience has not deterred the students from continuing to take action. They’ve been invited to make a written submission to Parliament’s Petitions Committee to help it consider their petition. They are busy drafting their response and will also request the opportunity to make an oral submission.

Senior Social Studies teachers Brandee Thorburn and Jennifer Dann are proud of their students’ commitment to political action and thank Matilda’s dad Jacob Otter-Lowe for taking the girls to Wellington for their valuable Parliamentary experience.

By Jennifer Dann
Social studies teacher