I don’t think the Government could be more virtue-signalling if it tried.
I’m talking about its crazy idea to ban fizzy and sugary drinks from primary and intermediate schools.
It’s a proposal at this stage and Education Minister Chris Hipkins has given us 8 weeks to provide feedback.
Well here’s my feedback - “you’re too late mate, because the horse has already bolted - on several fronts”.
School principals seem to be nodding their heads and saying it’s a good idea. Some of them are pointing out, though, that it’s nothing new and their schools already only let the kids bring water to school.
The chair of the Board of Trustees at Banks Avenue School here in Christchurch is taking a different approach - he’s saying that educating kids about a healthy diet is the way to go. Not legislation.
Kirk McKay is his name. He says teachers are already being forced to be the “food police” at schools and government legislation banning sugary drinks would be taking things way too far. And I couldn’t agree with him more.
Chris Hipkins is banging on about there being “a myriad of benefits and good outcomes for learning” if school kids keep off the gut rot.
The dental association is more plain-speak and upfront about it. I saw a dentist on TV last night saying he’s pulled out thousands of rotten teeth from the mouths of kids who’ve been brought up on Coke and Fanta and all of that other stuff.
And the dentists don’t want the Government to stop at primary and intermediate schools - they want sugary drinks banned at high schools too.
But I think the point that’s missing from all of the reports that I’ve seen about this is yes, dentists are pulling rotten teeth out of kids’ mouths, but was it only when they got to age five and started going to school that they started drinking this stuff? Of course not!
We’ve all seen toddlers being pushed around in buggies sucking on sweet drinks, haven’t we? For donkey’s years, parents have been giving the wee ones stuff like Ribena, haven’t they?
So is a sudden switch to water on their fifth birthday going to make any real difference? I don’t think so - that’s why I think the Government is just virtue-signalling. It’s a pipedream.
The thing is, though, the Government knows it’s on pretty safe ground with this.
If I’d turned up at our local primary school this morning and asked the parents outside after drop-off if they thought kids should only drink water at school, I bet most would say it’d be the right thing to do.
Who wouldn’t?
But if I then asked them whether it would make one bit of difference, given the likelihood that most kids drink all this stuff well before they get to school - I don’t think they’d be quite as emphatic.
But that doesn’t matter for the Government. Because as long as it comes up with something that sounds like a good idea, something that looks like it’s doing what’s best for the kids as far as most people are concerned - then it’s on pretty safe ground.
And that, in my book, is the definition of virtue signalling. And that is exactly what the Government is doing here.
What’s more, like many things that seem to be a good idea at the time, this one has loopholes.
It’s saying that if this went ahead, only water, milk and non-dairy milk substitutes would be allowed.
I went to the fridge here at work earlier and there was a container of Sanitarium Up and Go in it. Sounds like a milk drink, doesn’t it? Yeah but look at the ingredients, and what’s in it? Sugar!
More evidence that this idea the Government has come up with is just virtue signalling of the highest order and, like many ideas dreamed up by people in Wellington with a whiteboard and markers, there are loopholes left, right and centre.

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