Budget documents show the government was told of "profound" wellbeing benefits from the free school lunch scheme months before it decided to trim its funding.

The research was supposed to be published in June but was still under wraps.

However, Budget papers published this week referred to the study's early findings.

"Emerging findings support previous evaluation findings, but also highlight further benefits of the programme, including improvements in achievement and the importance of universality," said a December briefing note to Minister of Education Erica Stanford.

"This includes that learners are more settled and able to engage with classroom activity and learning, with some schools showing increased academic achievement resulting from an enhanced learning experience from being more settled and less distracted. Initial findings also indicate that the programme is having a profound impact on the wellbeing of learners," it said.

Earlier this year, the government cut annual funding for the scheme by $107 million, reducing the per-student spend for children at intermediate and secondary schools to $3.

A March briefing paper about changing the model for Ka Ora, Ka Ako said it was not clear whether lunches could be provided at that price.

"The most significant risk from the proposal is that we have not market-tested or otherwise analysed the proposed $3 per head price. We do not know whether sufficient supply exists to offer lunches to the specified standard at this price across the full range of schools," the document said.

I'm looking at getting a gateway device to replace the ISP router that sits between the internet connection and the mesh WiFi.

I am running pi-hole on a (very old) raspberry pi, but I know some gateways get quite fancy so I'm wondering if it's possible to have pi-hole on the gateway itself, to run as DNS and DHCP servers?

Other things I'm looking for in a gateway are VPN as a client (preferably Wireguard) and PoE ports for cameras.

If it's possible to host something like pi-hole directly on the gateway then hardware recommendations are appreciated!

We're paying higher prices, specials are confusing and loyalty schemes aren't delivering overly significant rewards.

Those aren't just the musings of a frustrated supermarket shopper - but are some of the findings in the Commerce Commission's first annual grocery report, issued on Wednesday.

Rewards schemes were only giving a return of between 0.71 percent for Flybuys and 0.75 percent for Everyday Rewards.

Between 2007 and 2019, the average weekly spend on grocery food increased 7.3 percent every three years but the latest data showed a leap of 28.9 percent.

The commission's report said supermarkets would point to their own rising costs as the reason for price rises.

But it said margins had continued to grow - all of the major supermarkets had experienced an increase in price-cost margins, which meant that retail prices were increasing faster than the cost of the goods.

The report said supermarkets "continue to achieve higher levels of profitability than we would expect in a workably competitive market".

It was not likely that Costco would be able to expand to the point where it could become a serious third supermarket contender, it said.

The report said the Warehouse could be an option - its network of shops meant it was in a good position to encourage shoppers to split their shopping in many cases - but it had said it had no intention of raising the capital needed to compete.

The "five things" don't work that well as a list, but they are:

• High prices aren't in your head
• Competition is not bringing down margins, or prices
• Other competitors aren't finding it easy
• Innovation, but is it what we want?
• Would fines make a difference?

A man has been arrested after five central Wellington shops had windows smashed or damaged overnight.

Wholly Bagels owner Junwei Hu said the damage had been been done on purpose with "lots of force".

He said he had no idea why someone would break holes in the windows and push mushrooms through to the shop floor.

"There's quite a bit (of) mushrooms... I don't know how they did it, but like, it's inside everywhere. Maybe they squashed through the hole."

A dairy on Lambton Quay also had windows damaged.

Security footage at Lambton Mart showed the glass was shattered by a hammer, manager Mayank Patel said. Cards similar to bank cards had been dropped inside.

Patel said the hammer hit a letter 'o' on the Lotto logo at Lambton Mart, Patel said.

The same part of the Lotto logo at TJ Superette was targeted, as was the letter 'o' at Coco Wellington and in the word 'Hottest' on window of Mecca on Lambton Quay.

Just after 4pm this afternoon NZ5366 travelling from Christchurch to Wellington landed safely after smoke was seen coming from the engine," Air New Zealand Head of Flight Operations, Hugh Pearce said in a statement.

"The aircraft was met by emergency services and all passengers have disembarked safely.

Pearce later added that the cause remains under investigation.

A suspected boat burglar has been arrested after jumping into the tide and leading police on a slow-motion chase in the Bay of Islands.

He refused to come ashore, instead rowing towards the ferry ramp then abandoning his dinghy and swimming towards Russell.

Officers, including a police dog, followed him in an inflatable boat.

The police spokesperson said the man had missed his calling: "He should have been a marathon swimmer."

Tougher rules are needed to combat the risk of political corruption in New Zealand, according to the Helen Clark Foundation.

In a report for the public policy think-tank, set up by former prime minister Helen Clark, author Philippa Yasbek set out 26 recommendations to strengthen the country's anti-corruption measures.

They included penalties for those who failed to comply with the Official Information Act, capping a person's political donations to $30,000 per electoral cycle, mandatory reporting of all gifts offered to politicians, and a three-year wait before any former politician could become a lobbyist.

"Corruption is an insidious cancer. It is not enough for democracies like ours to pay lip service to principles of transparency and steps which need to be taken against corruption," he said in a foreword to the report.

"New Zealand must critically examine these issues on a regular basis. That is why this article is so important and why it raises very serious questions about New Zealand's current commitment to transparency."

Yasbek said anti-corruption measures in New Zealand were largely governed by social norms, but laws were needed.

Te Papa will begin charging an entry fee for international visitors from September.

Entry to the museum will remain free for New Zealanders.

The entry fee will be $35 and will apply from 17 September to international visitors aged 16 years and older.

With nearly 600,000 international visitors in the 2023/2024 financial year, Te Papa is expected to earn an additional $5-$10 million per year from the move.

Johnston said visitors would self-identify their nationality.

"You'll walk into Te Papa and we'll say, 'Kia ora, how are you? Where have you come from today?' And if you say, 'Oh, I've come from Johnsonville', then we'll say, 'Great, head up the stairs, head into the museum, have a wonderful visit'.

"And if you say, 'Oh, I'm from France' or 'I'm from Germany', we'll say, 'Awesome, head up the stairs, you'll see the ticket desk right there, that's where you can buy your ticket'."

Home loan borrowers can expect rates to fall throughout the rest of this year and next, commentators say.

The Reserve Bank cut the official cash rate by 25bps to 5.25 percent on Wednesday.

While it was a move that was forecast by several economists, it was a u-turn from the bank's position in May. Infometrics chief executive Brad Olsen described it as a "WTH moment" and "the biggest flip-flop ever".

The skipper of a Coastguard boat who rescued two divers after they became separated from their boat in waters near Kāpiti, north of Wellington, says the scenario is the stuff of nautical nightmares.

The divers were dragged south in swift currents, but managed to swim to a nearby island and even had provisions to light a fire, alerting the Westpac Rescue Helicopter to their location.

Coastguard skipper Mark Davidson told Checkpoint police were alerted by the diver's partners - who were waiting on the diver's boat - that they had lost contact with the men about 5pm on Sunday.

Last weeks thread here

Welcome to this week’s casual kōrero thread!

This post will be pinned in this community so you can always find it, and will stay for about a week until replaced by the next one.

It’s for talking about anything that might not justify a full post. For example:

• Something interesting that happened to you
• Something humourous that happened to you
• Something frustrating that happened to you
• A quick question
• A request for recommendations
• Pictures of your pet
• A picture of a cloud that kind of looks like an elephant
• Anything else, there are no rules (except the rule)

So how’s it going?