‘If I hadn’t heard politicians like him scapegoating migrants, I may have never cared about New Zealand politics in the same way that I do.’

My pub date with second-term MP Ricardo Menéndez March has been waylaid in the most Green Party way possible. We’ve made plans to be at Pint of Order, but right now, from the gallery of the House, I’m watching him filibuster a motion. When you’re an opposition MP facing a deluge of contentious bills, your life revolves around a stratagem of delaying the legislative process. At some point, Menéndez March sends me a nod across the House – 10 minutes later, we’re finally sharing a drink and discussing, among many things, everything he thinks is wrong with the country’s immigration system and what makes Dragon Ball Z the greatest anime of all time.

That’s Menéndez March to a T: always on and never missing a beat. His role as his party’s musterer (the Greens’ fancy name for the whip), his six portfolios (among them immigration and social development), his four select committees (including privileges and business), and his mahi supporting migrant families with neurodivergent children keeps him exceptionally busy. Even when he tries to switch off by lifting weights, a few people sharing the gym might want want to bend his ear to ask for advice not on their workouts, but on their visas. “I’ve definitely had a few immigration constituency cases that arose from interactions at the gym,” he smiles.

While opponents may call him a bleeding heart (“so be it”), Menéndez March sees himself as more “earnest”; a “positive cynic”. He’s not the kind of guy who just likes to kick up a stink at injustice, but the kind of guy who also wants to take action on it. This term, he was the one who brought to light the high-profile case of Daman Kumar, a New Zealand-born teenager who was threatened with deportation. Menéndez March’s lobbying of then associate immigration minister Chris Penk and subsequent media attention saw Kumar’s deportation overturned, and a few months later, he went on to become Menéndez March’s youth MP.

Not every case Menéndez March works on is as successful. Asked how he stays sane while watching the world burn, the 37-year-old emphasises the importance of not giving up hope while also holding space for the worst. “If I lose a positive outlook, it’s hard for me to instil that on my constituents,” says Menéndez March.

Was immigration always something Menéndez March expected himself to gravitate to? He was born in Mexico City in the late 1980s, grew up in Tijuana and moved to Aotearoa in 2006, where he worked as a projectionist at Auckland’s Capitol Cinema for many years before moving onto welfare advocacy with Auckland Action Against Poverty. But his memories of growing up next to the US-Mexico border and the backdrop of Trump-led anti-migrant sentiment against which he entered parliament in 2020 have ended up shaping a lot of his time here.

“I’ve worked with families who’ve been massively affected by meth, and I’ve come from a family that was affected by ill mental health – my mum died of suicide,” Menéndez March says. “It’s those experiences you ultimately carry around … Being ‘radical’ for me means actually trying to go to the root of an issue.”

As for the politicians who are fond of pointing the finger at migrants, sometimes in the most personal ways, Menéndez March says he “frankly couldn’t give a shit”.

“Even in my maiden speech, I acknowledged that people like Winston Peters and his comments about migrants actually are responsible for me being an MP,” Menéndez March says. “So in some ways I actually have him to thank for getting me involved. If I hadn’t heard politicians like him scapegoating migrants, I may have never cared about New Zealand politics in the same way that I do.”

THE SPINOFF PUB Q+A

How much should a pint cost?

I think it could be $5-$8, ideally. I used to be a duty manager back in my day, and I think one of the benefits of having beers that are within reach for low-income people in licensed venues is that you actually have someone in charge of making sure that if someone’s intoxicated, they’re looked after. Alcohol in venues shouldn’t be ridiculously more expensive than alcohol from a liquor shop because actually, you have someone who’s in charge of looking after the welfare of the customer.

Do you have a karaoke go-to?

This is very stereotypical to my age group where I’m from, but there’s this group called Belanova [with] a song called ‘Rosa Pastel’. It’s a very popular song back at home, from when I was in high school, and it’s very girly pop.

Favourite place to get a drink in Aotearoa?

I like a mezcal, and I really appreciate the fact that there’s places like Cazador in Auckland that have cultivated a habit of being able to offer different spirits.

Which three MPs would be on your pub quiz team?

So that he doesn’t break his streak, Dr Lawrence Xu-Nan. He’s a good friend, and I do genuinely believe he’s extremely knowledgable. I wanna say, because I always suck at the sports questions despite having been a sports spokesperson in the past, I would choose [Green MP] Scott Willis. And I would quite happily choose [Labour’s] Carmel Sepuloni, to lobby her to lift benefits above the poverty line.

Which MP from across the aisle would you most like to share a drink with?

Yeah, you know what, [associate immigration minister] Cameron Brewer. I would probably just put the pile of ministerial intervention requests for my constituents [on the table], we can have a drink and I would just talk about them, and then hopefully I can just quietly get him to sign off intervening on them.

But I think my more earnest answer to why is because I genuinely believe that a lot of associate immigration ministers do not have the time to engage on the human level of these cases. I think sometimes, you know, once they get to see the depth of what families are experiencing, they’re more willing to. And so if I’m able to do it during a beer, I am quite happy to take the opportunity to.

Is there an alcohol-related law you would like to change?

I’m quite keen to deal with alcohol sponsorship in sports, but I think one area within the sports realm that I feel needs more regulation is within esports. So, just making sure that that also gets covered as part of regulating sponsorship in sports.

What’s a policy area we’ve been nursing without finishing the glass?

One of the recent changes that was made this term was to specifically restrict neurodivergence and intellectually disabled migrant children from being able to get visas. I think there is so much more awareness and acceptance on neurodivergence, and yet on the one hand, we have migrant children being told that their neurodivergence makes them a burden. So when I work with autistic children who are literally getting told, “you’re not wanted because you’re a burden”, it sends a message to local people. That’s one of my concerns that I have around this approach, that is not just like trampling on human rights, but the fact that it also sends a message to locals.

Another thing that I think we still need to address is having a right to repair. That’s a bill that I drafted, and I think we should be able to repair, whether it’s vehicles, whether it’s appliances locally and through repair cafes, and people should be able to get parts in an easy way and not be at the mercy of huge corporations. And with the fuel crisis making the importing of parts even more difficult, having people being able to repair things domestically would be ideal.

What qualities make a good drinking partner?

I quite like kind drinkers. But the nana in me welcomes a drinking partner that acknowledges when it’s time to go to sleep. Therefore I like someone who can start early and finish early.

Have you ever had a Schnapps election moment where you regretted your political instinct?

Yeah, for sure; I think any politician that says that they haven’t would be pretending that they’re an automaton and not human. I think anyone can make a lapse of judgment. For example, me debating a bill that was enabling the detention of asylum seekers and getting frustrated at the Labour Party for claiming they had issues with the bill when they introduced it. I remember swearing in the chamber, and then there was a bunch of media articles about me dropping the f-bomb. As if that was more offensive than actually detaining asylum seekers.

I will always acknowledge that there are moments in which some of that may detract from speaking on the issue itself. You know, the part of having representatives that represent people is accepting that with that comes the complexities of just being human. I don’t want Nicola Willis to also replace parliamentarians with AI.

Up next on One MP, One Pint: Banks Peninsula MP Vanessa Weenink. Read more OMPOP interviews here.