David Seymour did not tell Education Minister Erica Stanford about the Libelle liquidation. Photo: RNZ / Marika Khabazi
The education minister only found out school lunch provider Libelle was going into liquidation through media reports, as the associate education minister decided not to tell her.
Written Parliamentary Questions from the Green Party show David Seymour found out there was a possibility of Libelle's liquidation on 6 March.
Libelle was officially placed into liquidation on 11 March, and it was only then that Erica Stanford found out.
According to the first report by liquidators Deloitte, Libelle exhausted its cash reserves on 6 March, after paying employees' wages.
It was no longer able to purchase essential goods and services to enable ongoing trading.
Libelle approached Deloitte on the evening on 6 March, seeking its consent to act as liquidators.
Deloitte spent until 10 March planning for the insolvency appointment, to ensure there was a strategy for the ongoing supply of lunches once the liquidation was made official.
Deloitte then publicly announced Libelle was being placed into liquidation on 11 March.
The Green Party's education spokesperson Lawrence Xu-Nan asked the Education Minister, Associate Education Minister and Prime Minister when they were first made aware that Libelle was going into liquidation.
He also asked the Education Minister and Prime Minister who informed them of the liquidation.
Seymour told Xu-Nan that Ministry of Education officials verbally briefed him on 6 March of the possibility of Libelle going into liquidation.
"I was kept abreast of developments until the liquidator was appointed on Tuesday 11 March 2025, as I was focussed on continuity of supply," his reply said.
The Prime Minister says his office was told about the liquidation on 7 March. Photo: Photo / Marika Khabazi
The Prime Minister said Seymour's office told his office on 7 March.
Stanford, however, told Xu-Nan she was "informed via the media that the Libelle Group had been placed into liquidation."
Seymour told RNZ as the responsible minister, his duty was to make sure the programme delivered.
"Updating other ministers on every development would be nice, but I think they would rather I fix the problems," he said.
"In this instance my office made sure that the Prime Minister's office was kept informed of developments, as is appropriate."
Lawrence Xu-Nan said it reinforced the need to return to the original school lunch model, and expand it.
"If we had good and well-funded, nutritious, warm, locally-made lunches that are resilient and aren't going to have all of these issues, we wouldn't have this in the first place," he said.
Erica Stanford's office told RNZ they would not be commenting further.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
