Shaw JamesJAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): We need to talk about the weather. So far in 2017 it has been wild. Last week Cyclone Debbie tore through the North Island and today another cyclone is tearing down upon us. There have always been cyclones of course in New Zealand but two in the space of a week is not normal. Of course 2017 has not been a normal year has it? While we were having the worst summer imaginable here in Wellington the farmers of Hawke's Bay did not see rain for months. In Christchurch it was so dry that when the Port Hills caught fire the images looked more like an Australian bushfire. They were not the only wildfires this summer were they? There were wildfires around Queenstown Marlborough Coromandel and Hawke's Bay.And then came the floods. In Northland they went from being parched to being inundated inside of a month. Shops in New Lynn have been flooded twice already this year. In March the people of Coromandel found themselves completely cut off from the rest of the country by floodwater. Then of course last week was ex-tropical Cyclone Debbie. The people of Edgecumbe felt it the most and they are still not home and there is more trouble on the way today.We asked the Prime Minister last Tuesday whether he thought that just possibly climate change might be causing all of this wild weather and do you know what he said? I am going to quote him: I don't think it matters too much."—he said—"We don't spend time trying to connect the two." That is a remarkable thing to say. I cannot think of any other catastrophe in New Zealand when the Prime Minister has decided that he did not need to know what the cause was. Think about that. When somebody has cancer you do not ignore the cigarettes. When there has been a car accident you do not ignore the smell of alcohol on the driver's breath. When the people of Havelock North start getting sick you do not ignore what is in that water. But that is exactly what the Prime Minister is proposing here.The thing is the causes of this weather do matter. They matter to the people of Edgecumbe. They matter to the people of the Coromandel Northland Hawke's Bay and Canterbury. They matter to the homeowners in Christchurch who faced down wildfires for 2 whole days.Climate change is causing more floods more fires and more droughts and we need a Government that is ready to help ordinary New Zealanders to prepare for what is coming. We need a Government that is actually willing to admit that there is a problem. We need a Government that will admit that sea levels are rising. We need a Government that will admit that storms are happening more frequently and that they are getting worse that droughts are longer and deeper and that climate change is actually a problem. And we need a Government that is willing to step up and actually do something about it—not talk; do something about it. Greenhouse gas emissions in this country have risen 19 percent since this Government came to office. We need a Government that can recognise that solving climate change is actually a change for the better. Right now this Government is acting like an addict—an addict who cannot admit that they have a problem with climate change—and we cannot afford to wait for it to hit rock bottom before things change. It is time to change the Government and change is coming."