The Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez March

About a month ago, Wednesday Wire host Manny spoke to a researcher sounding the alarm over the state of our primary healthcare, here and globally.

Across the globe, services meant to be the first port of call for health issues such as dental, GPs and pharmacists, were found to be increasingly under stress as costs grow and the workforce fails to keep pace with demand.

Here in Aotearoa New Zealand, The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners Workforce Survey in 2022 raised concerns: Over half of GPs were planning to retire within the next decade, a declining number of GPs work in GP run practices and filling that gap is an increasing number of corporate healthcare providers.

As the holder of the Green parties Primary Healthcare Portfolio, our Green Party interviewee is the perfect subject to discuss his parties platform on the subject.

So for our weekly catch-up with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menéndez March, we talk primary healthcare, it’s current state in Aotearoa, the issues it faces and where the Green Party would like to take it.

As the US and Israel’s war on Iran continues, Iran has continued to keep the Strait of Hormuz closed, blocking a fifth of the world’s oil trade. As oil supplies shrink and demand increases, prices have jumped across the world, including in Aotearoa. With fuel prices rising amidst a cost of living crisis, questions have been raised as to what the government has done to reduce prices for New Zealanders. 

This week has seen two groups, Lawyers for Climate Action and the Environmental Law Initiative taking the government to court over what they claim is an unlawful policy for tackling climate change. As the government continues to promote tree planting as a way to offset emissions, opponents say we should instead focus on emissions reductions.

Finally, this past week has also seen the report released from the second phase of the government’s COVID 19 inquiry, to strong responses from most of parliament. While the report’s findings were mostly balanced, with a mix of praise and critique for the government of the time, many politicians have seized it as fuel for their party’s agenda on the COVID response. 

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party’s Ricardo Menendez March, News Director Castor asked him about each of these issues, beginning with cost of living.

Over the weekend, the US and Israel began conducting bombing strikes on Iran, already killing Iran’s Supreme Leader - Ayatollah Khamenei - close to 50 Iranian leaders, and hundreds of civilians - including - according to Iranian state media - at least 153 civilians at a school for children between the ages of seven and twelve.

The strikes have been met with criticism from experts in New Zealand, who have condemned the strikes as illegal under international law. However, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and Minister of Foreign Affairs Winston Peters, have so far expressed neither explicit support nor criticism of the United States and Israel’s bombing campaign.

Shipping and energy costs have already been impacted by the war, with the costs of liquid natural gas rapidly increasing, demonstrating the risks of the government’s plan to build a liquid natural gas terminal in Taranaki in introducing greater price shock vulnerability to New Zealand’s energy system.

Meanwhile, the people’s select committee on pay equity - a coalition of women who formerly served as MPs - published their findings on the government’s passing of the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025, with recommendations that the legislation be scrapped, alongside the introduction of a new independent pay equity unit.

For the weekly catchup w/ the Green Party, Wire Host Manny spoke with MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the Green Party’s response to this report, but began by talking about the US-Israel bombing of Iran and New Zealand’s role in responding to the conflict.

With the long-delayed opening of the city rail link due to later this year, and the government re-launching their roads of national significance, eyes have turned to a perennial problem. Why do we spend more on building than any other OECD nation yet receive far less bang for buck? 

To solve these problems, the government asked the Infrastructure Commission to write a plan that could be the basis for a bipartisan infrastructure pipeline, the National Infrastructure Plan, to give us steady development and perspective on our infrastructure needs and issues.

And this week, the Employment Relations Amendment bill under ACT MP Brooke Van Veldon has reached its final reading before being put into law. It is set to overhaul our employment system, supporters say it will make it easier for contractors to get the arrangements that they want and increase work, critics say it will push workers into more precarious positions with less protections from exploitation.

For this weeks catch up with the Green Party I spoke to MP Ricardo Menéndez March about the National Infrastructure Plan and Employment Relations Amendment Bill.