Simpson ScottSCOTT SIMPSON (National—Coromandel): I want to join with other colleagues from this side of the House in this general debate this afternoon and talk a little bit about the very important decision that the Hon Paula Bennett Minister for Climate Change Issues has made today in relation to the early ratification of our Paris Agreement obligations. Listening to Grant Robertson speaking one would be forgiven for thinking that he missed hearing his leader—the abject desperate leader of the Labour Party—trying to talk back earlier in this debate the political damage he did last week. Last week Andrew Little was telling Labour MPs: Do not be seen with the right-wing Mayor of Porirua. He is a right-wing person and you cannot be seen in the same room as he is." This week in this debate this afternoon suddenly—guess what? The Mayor of Porirua is suddenly a good guy. He is a fine guy; he is a guy who is to be lauded and to be applauded according to Andrew Little. And Andrew Little can as desperately and wantonly as he likes try to talk back the damage that he did last week—try to talk it back try to walk it back try to make it as if it did not happen—but it did. That week last week was a disaster for the Labour Party a disaster for the Leader of the Opposition and it only destined him to be in that role for a very long period of time to come. This afternoon we have had a terrific announcement for New Zealanders for this Parliament and indeed for the globe because the Minister for Climate Change Issues has—very early much earlier than was anticipated—been able to announce that New Zealand will ratify the Paris Agreement that was made in December of last year. That was when 180 countries from around the world which collectively make up 99 percent of global emissions agreed to make emissions reductions possible. There were many sceptics who thought that that Paris Agreement could not achieve what it had set out to do or achieve what it did in fact achieve. This is why this early ratification by New Zealand is important—notwithstanding the fact that we are a small contributor to global emissions internationally but we have an important leadership role to play. New Zealand is part of a much bigger global plan to address climate change issues that are facing the world and Paula Bennett in my view is doing a terrific job of communicating that not only on the international stage but also to New Zealanders here some of whom are still coming to terms with the importance of climate change issues. I think that she can articulate and present and communicate those messages to middle New Zealand in a way that is worthy of this Parliament and this Government. We have set as a Government some very ambitious targets for New Zealand and it will not be easy for us to meet those targets—they are going to be difficult to achieve. We have set our target at 30 percent below our 2005 emission level by the year 2030. That is the sort of thing that is relatively easy to say but when we take a minute or two to think about the ramifications of how that might implicate our businesses our agricultural sector and every sector of New Zealand society then we begin to understand that every sector of New Zealand society has an important pivotal role to play in reducing our emissions. It was only a few years ago that most New Zealanders did not recycle that most New Zealanders did not sort their rubbish in terms of their landfill. They did not sort their glass from their newspaper from their tin cans from their paper or from their landfill waste. Nowadays it is very common and it is part of probably just about every household in the country. So in a small but important way over a few years New Zealanders have actually already started to make those transitional changes that are required to assist with reducing our climate change impacts. So it is a good day for New Zealand it is a good day for this Parliament and I am enormously proud to be part of a Government that is going to ratify New Zealand's Paris climate change agreement much much earlier than we had anticipated. I congratulate the Minister on bringing it to the House today."