Well I don’t know what’s wrong with Chinese food.

Because personally, I would take that over a ham and egg sandwich or a mince and cheese pie every day of the week.

But to what this is actually about: it is so small minded and silly to scrap free lunches for councillors during meetings. The money it would save would be negligible in the scheme of things. There are no figures available for how much Auckland Council is saving by scrapping the free lunches, but it doesn’t sound extravagant.  

Previously councillors have enjoyed light lunches on meeting days, including sandwiches, muffins, fruit with tea and coffee at the rear of the council chamber. 

Parliament just had this same debate.

They’re thinking about scrapping the tea trolley during select committees. This from a place that spent $572K on an architecturally designed playground. 

I mean, get your priorities in order.

The cost of a few sandwiches is not going to plug the $295m hole in the council’s budget is it? That's real money.

Now this is not to say that I'm cavalier about small spends, because like anyone who runs a household budget I know, you know, lots of small amounts eventually end up as a big amount. And I do expect the council to be frugal and careful with even the small sums.

But I also think it’s only decent that if you are expected to be in a meeting over lunch time that your lunch is provided.

I'm told the meeting yesterday where this was discussed ran from 10am until well after 5pm.

It's not the same as you and I turning up to work where we can wander away from our desk and around the office. The comparison is when you are called into a meeting for work, and you are there for the whole day. You should also expect to be fed.

In the end, I'm not going to lament the loss of sandwiches. I just lament that this is part of what we think is the solution. It’s lunch, for people in a meeting all day.

Arguing over sammies is just petty isn’t it?