Why Should You Vote Green?

In the run-up to the 2026 election, Salient is interviewing all of the major parties to understand their responses to the issues students face. Here, Tamatha Paul, former VUWSA president and Wellington Central electorate MP, pitches the Greens.

What is the biggest challenge facing students in New Zealand in 2026?

Cost of living, hands down. But equally, there’s just the lack of hope for the future.The lack of job security, internships, and opportunities, especially here in Wellington. They’re related, but different. 

So what are the Greens proposing to support students?

I think probably the biggest ones in terms of cost of living are our policies for renters, our policies around public transport, and in terms of tertiary education, we have policies around free tertiary education and paid placements at a living wage. 

We have a government which goes on about how affordable it is to be a renter. But, rents are already way too expensive, even if they aren’t growing. So rent controls are needed. Rental warrant of fitness is another big one I’ve been pushing, because students having crappy flats is way too normalised and way too accepted as a rite of passage. So I think those would be the two primary policies we have for students. While for public transport, we support free public transport for tertiary students—always have—and while I was on VUWSA, we got the 25 percent tertiary discount for students in Wellington. We had nothing before. 

Students are currently the only beneficiary group not eligible for the winter energy payment. Is this something the Greens would change?

Yes. We have a member's bill in the ballot right now to make this happen, and we’re the only party campaigning on it.

In 2023, a two-zone trip on Metlink cost a tertiary student $1.13 at peak time. Currently it costs $2.63, an increase of 132 percent. 50 percent of students get to Vic by public transport; how will the Greens reduce this financial burden?

We know if we change the government we will be definitely getting a $20 fare cap on public transport, because it’s not only our bottom line but also what Labour have committed to. Still, we want to go further, and we’re committed to advocating for free public transport for tertiary students. 

Between 2014 and 2024, the amount course fees could rise each year was between 2 and 2.8 percent. In 2025 and 2026, course fees were allowed to rise by 6 percent. If elected, what would your policy on course fees be?

As a person who used to allocate some of those fees, that’s such a nerdy and important question! 6 percent is ridiculous; wages don’t keep up with that. Ultimately, we don’t have a policy this specific. But I think if the government invests more in universities, then the onus of covering said growth won’t fall on students and student fees. Ideally, education would be free. We won’t achieve that in government straight away but it’s our underlying philosophy. 

So are you wanting to bring fees-free back?

Yes. We’ve committed to bringing back at least a year’s worth of fees-free, and we’re the only party in parliament who has done so. But we want to keep building towards fully free education, which was the intention when Jacinda announced the policy back in 2017. 

Still, there are lots of spaces when it comes to tertiary education and fees and allowances and loans which are really important. One big one which we’ve been advocating for a long time is a postgraduate student allowance. They get nothing. Which is bullshit. They’re acquiring the skillset and experience to serve our community collectively, and we need highly skilled people in this country. 

Most parties which I have talked to have been reticent to commit to many of these things we’ve just talked about because of the cost. So where does the money for these things come from? 

Our wealth tax, which taxes wealth above $10 million. Though we’re campaigning on a whole range of different changes to income tax and the like. For example, we want the first $10,000 you earn to be tax-free, which will put more money in the pockets of students, alongside the universal student income which we want. 

Wellington’s unemployment rate is at 6.3 percent, but for those aged between 15 and 24 it is 8.4 percent. There are ten thousand fewer jobs in Wellington than there were last election, and the government is looking to remove 8700 public sector jobs, which would disproportionately affect Wellington. Right now, what incentive is there for a graduate to stay in Wellington?

Right now I don’t blame anyone for leaving. But as the local MP, I want to turn it around. We need to, for so many reasons, and we do so by creating opportunities. One way is through investment and infrastructure projects. The construction industry has been one of the hardest hit in terms of job losses. We also need to change the government so we can prevent another 10,000 jobs from being cut from the public sector. And we need to restore some of the graduate roles and internships which have been lost thanks to this widespread cutting across the public sector. 

But speaking as the Wellington Central MP, not as a Green MP, we need to stimulate Wellington to bring economic activity here. We can do so by making sure there are lots of gigs, festivals, sport games here, and that they all have good venues. One thing I did this term as Wellington Central MP was to open our medium-sized venue, Meownui, which has brought a lot of big acts which couldn’t play here previously. So there’s lots of stuff, and always having stuff going on in the city means restaurants, bars, and cafes which students work at will always be busy. 

People need to stay here. We’ll never get mass rapid transit or light rail if people keep leaving. Christchurch is going to get it before us because their population is growing and ours isn’t. I want people to stay here, to have careers here, to have families here. 

Access to mental health addiction services for young people has declined—there are 5000 fewer people receiving care than five years ago. How would the Green Party address the gap between demand for mental health care and the services available? 

I think this really relates to our paid placements policy because we need to be training the workforce who will work in the mental health space. We need more nurses, psychologists, and counsellors, being trained up and staying here, and that’s where our policy on ensuring paid placements comes in. 

Thank you so much, Tam. 

No worries. 

Next week: Why should you vote Opportunity?