The Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez March

Earlier this week, the government announced that overseas-investors with a New Zealand investor residence visa would now be allowed to purchase homes in Aotearoa.

Under the new law changes, foreign investors will be eligible to purchase a home worth $5 million or more, which Prime Minister Christopher Luxon says would “encourage more investment to grow the economy.”

Also this week, more than 36,000 nurses across the motu have been on strike following a year of failed negotiations between NZNO and Te Whatu Ora - Health NZ over nurse staffing and fair pay. 

And the Greens recently launched a members bill that would protect those calling for medical assistance while dealing with a drug overdose from criminal prosecution.

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez-March to discuss all these issues.

Just yesterday, the Greens announced their support for five unions filing a legal case against the government in the High Court over their changes to pay equity laws.

The Nurses Organisation, Tertiary Education Union, NZEI Te Riu Roa, Post-Primary Teachers' Association, and Public Service Association argued the new rules breached the Bill of Rights Act and that the case gives workers who have been denied the right to challenge the changes a chance to challenge the government in court.

In that same week, it was revealed that the total cost of the scrapped iRex ferry project had escalated to $657 million dollars, following a final $144m payment to previous contractor Hyundai.

The project was originally scrapped in December 2023 after the total budget amounted to nearly $3 billion.

And the Resource Management (Consenting and Other System Changes) Amendment Bill recently passed in parliament.

Part of the government’s plan to fully replace the RMA, some of the changes in this amendment bill include: Requiring councils to grant consents for certain energy infrastructure within a year, Removes a range of freshwater planning requirements from farmers and allowing discharges into waterways as long as councils were confident that their planning will improve the waterway within a decade.

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

Earlier this week the government announced they’d be replacing the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) with a new set of national secondary school qualifications.

Minister of Education Erica Stanford says the current NCEA system was failing to help students develop critical thinking skills and was difficult for parents to navigate as well.

In that same week, FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the FBI would be opening a dedicated law enforcement attaché office in Wellington. Defence Minister Judith Collins and Police Minister Mark Mitchell said that the new office would strengthen our ties with the five eyes alliance, with Patel additionally saying the move would counter Chinese influence in the region.

And the Green party recently launched a petition calling on the government to reverse policies of theirs related to emergency housing access that the Greens say have led to an increase in homelessness across the country.

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.

Recent statistics on inflation published earlier this week showed that consumer prices had risen by 2.7% in the last 12 months to June.

Stats NZ identified the main contributor to inflation as local authority rates and payments, which were up 12.2%.

Earlier this week, the Green party recently called on the government to lower the minimum voting age to 16, which was in response to a move by the UK government last week, where they announced their plans to lower the voting age to 16 in time for their next general election.

And the most recent figures from the Ministry of Social Development were published which showed that benefit sanctions have increased by 27% compared to last year, with the number of people receiving the benefit also increasing by 6.6%.

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.