Green Party co-leader Marama Davidson joins Waatea as Election 2026 enters its final stretch, with the Greens putting affordable kai, health equity, environmental protection and greater participation in democracy at the centre of their campaign.
With less than two months until polling day, the Greens are presenting voters with an increasingly interventionist programme — including restoring and expanding free school lunches, creating a publicly owned supermarket competitor, strengthening public healthcare and putting greater protection around the natural environment.
The party’s 2026 manifesto is built around three priorities: affordable living, healthy nature and real democracy, alongside a commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES FOR ANOTHER 150,000 TAMARIKI
Davidson has put food insecurity firmly into the campaign through a Green commitment to restore and permanently fund Ka Ora, Ka Ako.
The party wants school lunches again provided through schools or local providers, with the programme expanded to approximately 400 additional schools and another 150,000 children.
The Greens argue school lunches are not simply about feeding hungry children. They link the programme to educational achievement, whānau wellbeing, local employment and supporting food producers.
The party says around one in five children live in households that run out of food, making access to nutritious kai a wider question of child poverty and household income.
For Māori communities, the proposal could also reopen opportunities for iwi, Māori organisations and local providers to play a greater role in delivering kai to tamariki.
KIWIMART TAKES AIM AT SUPERMARKET DUOPOLY
The Greens are also proposing one of the most dramatic interventions in New Zealand’s grocery market in decades.
Their Affordable Kai policy would establish KiwiMart, a publicly owned supermarket chain intended to compete directly with Foodstuffs and Woolworths.
The proposal would involve acquiring at least 120 existing supermarket stores and capacity from two distribution centres, with Parliamentary Library modelling obtained by the Greens estimating acquisition costs of about $1.3 billion. The party proposes another $1.5 billion to capitalise KiwiMart.
The Greens argue decades of attempts to encourage greater competition have failed and government should now be prepared to become the third major supermarket player itself.
Critics will inevitably question the cost, commercial risk and whether a government-owned supermarket could genuinely drive prices down.
For Davidson, the political test is much closer to home — what is left in a whānau wallet after buying the week’s kai.
HEALTH EQUITY REMAINS A MAJOR GREEN PRIORITY
Hauora is another significant battleground.
Davidson has been pushing for greater investment in the public health workforce, affordable dental care and a health system that delivers more equitable outcomes for Māori.
The Greens have criticised health vacancies remaining unfilled while hospitals and frontline services remain under pressure and support guaranteed employment for nursing graduates alongside further workforce investment.
The party also continues to support universal publicly accessible dental care.
For whānau Māori, Davidson’s argument is that equality of access on paper is not enough if cost, geography, workforce shortages or culturally unsafe services still prevent people receiving treatment when they need it.
TAIAO BECOMES AN ELECTION LINE IN THE SAND
Environmental protection is also becoming increasingly politically contested.
The Greens’ Drink Swim Fish programme proposes stronger protections for freshwater, rivers, beaches and oceans, while the party has opposed aspects of the Government’s conservation reforms.
Davidson has argued that healthy communities and a healthy natural environment cannot be separated.
That position has particular significance for Māori where debates over conservation intersect with kaitiakitanga, whenua, wai, mahinga kai, customary rights and rangatiratanga.
It also comes as arguments intensify around bottom trawling, mining, freshwater quality, development and the use of conservation land.
WELFARE BECOMES ANOTHER POLITICAL DIVIDE
The future of welfare is also moving rapidly up the election agenda.
The recent MSD Winter Energy Payment failure has sharpened scrutiny of how decisions affecting beneficiaries and pensioners are made, while political parties are offering markedly different approaches to welfare obligations and income support.
For the Greens, welfare policy sits inside a broader argument about poverty and whether government systems should primarily provide security or impose greater obligations and sanctions.
Davidson has also highlighted worsening child poverty, with the party pointing to 169,300 children experiencing material hardship as evidence that significantly greater intervention is required.
RANGATAHI COULD HELP DECIDE THIS ELECTION
Perhaps one of the most unpredictable elements of Election 2026 is whether younger voters turn out.
Unemployment and underemployment are particularly severe among rangatahi. Recent Stats NZ figures put underutilisation among 15 to 24-year-olds at 37 percent, while unemployment has become one of the leading concerns among younger voters.
Historically, younger and lower-income New Zealanders have voted at lower rates than older voters.
But there are signs economic pressure may be driving greater political engagement, making enrolment and turnout potentially decisive for parties such as the Greens.
For Māori voters, participation carries another dimension as parties compete not only for the Māori electorates but also for the crucial party vote.
THE GREEN CHOICE FOR ELECTION 2026
There is a common thread running through much of Davidson’s election pitch.
The Greens argue government should be prepared to intervene more aggressively when existing systems fail to deliver.
In groceries, that means KiwiMart.
In schools, it means permanently funded nutritious lunches.
In healthcare, it means stronger public provision and addressing inequity.
For the environment, it means stronger protections for the places and ecosystems the party believes are being put at risk.
And in democracy, the Greens are arguing that political and economic power needs to sit closer to communities, with Te Tiriti and rangatiratanga embedded within that approach.
Other political parties will strongly contest the cost, scale and role of government contained in that programme.
But as Marama Davidson joins Waatea, the questions facing Māori voters are becoming increasingly immediate.
Can whānau afford the weekly kai? Can they see a doctor or dentist when they need one? Who protects the whenua and moana? What happens when people need welfare support? And, perhaps most importantly, will enough of us turn up and vote to determine what happens next?
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