Weekly Catchup w/ The Green Party's Ricardo Menendez-March: 27 August, 2025

Last week, Defence Minister Judith Collins and Foreign Minister Winston Peters revealed plans to purchase almost $3 billion worth of US aircraft to replace the Defence Force's ageing 757s.

The five MH-60R Seahawk helicopters involved in the purchase, manufactured by Lockheed Martin, would be procured directly through the United States' Foreign Military Sales programme.

This week, a legal challenge against the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, will be heard in the High Court in Wellington.

The case will be argued on the grounds that the government breached the Treaty of Waitangi and the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act when making the decision to disestablish the Māori Health Authority.

And the Green party recently launched a petition calling on the government to restore adequate funding to Polytechnics and to reverse cuts to vocational education and training.

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March to get the party’s take on all of these issues.