The Green Party's Ricardo Menéndez March

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.

Recently, a study was conducted by researchers at the University of Southampton which uncovered a shift in the circulation of the Southern Ocean.

The study showed that the shift would draw up more salt water from the deep ocean, subsequently accelerating the loss of ice in the Antarctic and leading to an increase of sea levels and global heating.

The week before, the government allowed the terrorist designation given to the far-right ‘Proud Boys’ group to expire, effectively decriminalising the act of funding or openly supporting the group here in Aotearoa.

And, just yesterday Finance Minister Nicola Willis confirmed a number of changes to Family Boost which she said would help families with the cost of living.

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, News and Editorial Director Joel spoke with MP Ricardo Menendez March to get the party’s take on all of these issues.

Recently the Green Party commissioned independent legal advice to look into the government’s $200 million investment in new gas fields that was carried out last month and found out that the investment was in breach of the Agreement on Climate Change, Trade and Sustainability (ACCTS).

NZ First MP Shane Jones recently announced that he’d be drafting a member's bill to force Ngāpuhi into a single commercial settlement, which would prevent hapū from negotiating separate commercial redresses and remove any reference to hapū sovereignty from the settlement terms.

And the Green party recently issued a call to the New Zealand government to condemn the US strikes on Iranian Nuclear facilities, almost a week after Iran and Israel had both been trading missile strikes between each other.

For our weekly catchup with the Green Party, Oto spoke with MP Hūhana Lyndon to get the party’s take on all of these issues