Weekly Catchup w/ The Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March: 5 March, 2025.

The ministry for Primary Industries has launched an investigation after a number of meals served to children by the School Lunch Collective were found to have their plastic packaging melted into their food.

This would be the fourth investigation launched into the collective after the government introduced the Alternative Provision Model for Ka Ora Ka Ako, replacing local suppliers.

Around this same period of time, a consultation document was sent to schools across the motu by education minister Erica Stanford asking for feedback on a proposal to defund and disestablish 174 full time roles for Resource Teachers of Literacy and Resource Teachers of Māori.

And the Greens recently issued a call to Prime Minister Christopher Luxon calling on him to rule out any possibility of joining the AUKUS military pact, following the contentious bilateral meeting between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the Whitehouse last week.

For their weekly catch up, Oto spoke to the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez-March for the Green Party’s take on all of these issues.