Shaw JamesHon JAMES SHAW (Co-Leader—Green): It is a great pleasure to rise on behalf of the Green Party following that contribution from the leader of New New Zealand First". Mr Seymour must be feeling quite grumpy right now because last term he worked so hard to get rid of Winston Peters so that this term he could become Winston Peters and now Winston Peters is calling and he wants his Horcrux back because that blackened shard of a soul can only animate the body of one populist authoritarian at once. Whilst the saying goes that the only two certainties in life are death and taxes Mr Peters is doing his level best to try and disprove the first of those. Chris Hipkins of course is trying to disprove the second.It is odd that at this election the National Party is actually proposing more new taxes than the Labour Party and the Greens are promising more income tax cuts than the National Party. It is very confusing. We here are still trying to work out why the GST exemption will apply to truffles but not bread or roses. Hon Members: Oh!Hon JAMES SHAW: But the confusion—I know I know. I'll only mention taxes 10 or 12 more times during the course of this speech—it's fine. The confusion I have to say is compounded by the recent rise in misinformation and disinformation such as how do you spell "cat" or "curriculum" and that's why the Green Party is calling on the National Party not to give any more spelling lessons to children because in the words of Christopher Luxon "We will not accept mediocrity in the school system"—just don't ask them to spell "mediocrity".But while we are on the topic of mediocrity let's just talk about National's plan to cancel the Climate Emergency Response Fund for a moment. Tell the people of Auckland and Hawke's Bay and Tairāwhiti and Te Tai Tokerau who lost their homes in the floods and storms earlier this year that now is a good time to stop fighting the climate crisis. Roughly 80 percent of the people in this country are worried about climate change and actually want the Government to do more and about 90 percent of them want the revenue that comes from polluters to be recycled back into action on cutting pollution. But Nicola Willis wants to use that money to fund tax cuts for property speculators and then has the gall to call it a climate dividend.Instead she could have cancelled the Land Transport Fund and returned that money and called that a transport dividend—good luck with your roads then. How would she pay for all of the megamotorways that Simeon Brown wants to build so that he can increase congestion and drive up pollution? She would never get away with it would she? So instead the National Party—except for Todd Muller—are going to do what the National Party has always done—[Interruption] Go Todd. They're going to say that they're committed to the long-term targets for cutting climate pollution but then they are going to kick the can down the road for another generation to actually do anything about it.Look at their track record. Six years ago I stood in this House and I asked then Prime Minister Bill English if he agreed that the one measure of whether a country was succeeding or failing in its fight against climate change was whether its greenhouse gas emissions were rising or falling and he said that he didn't think that it was that simple. But it is that simple. It might not be easy it might mean that you need to take some hard decisions and it might mean that you need to take the longterm good of the country into account rather than give voters an election bribe but it is definitely that simple.Six years later I can tell this House that our greenhouse gas emissions in Aotearoa are falling and that is because—and it is only because—with the Green Party in Government with Labour we have prioritised that work every single day. Now with the Greens in Government alongside my good friend the Minister of Finance we have billions of dollars going to support households and communities and businesses to embrace clean energy and all of that is paid for by polluters. With that fund we are helping to end the use of coal to heat our schools and our hospitals; with that fund we are helping some of the biggest industrial polluters to switch to renewable energy and high-value clean-tech jobs—go Megan Woods—and with that fund we are helping the people of Fiji to move dozens of villages away from rising seas and towards higher ground further inland and National want to cancel that. Under the last National Government one in 100 new cars sold in this country was an electric vehicle. Last June it was one in two. From one in 100 under National to one in two under us and National want to cancel all of that so that they can have an election year bribe because to the National Party winning is more important than human survival. You can actually smell the desperation on them and it smells like petroleum.At this election New Zealanders do have a clear choice between a Labour-led Government with the Green Party at the heart of it making a real difference or a National - ACT - New Zealand First Government that wants to take our country back in time. We cannot risk a National - ACT - New Zealand First Government who will use "It's not that simple." as an excuse for yet more delay who want to double bus fares for disabled people in order to fund tax cuts for property speculators who are itching to start drilling for more oil and gas in the Māui dolphin sanctuary who are weirdly obsessed with mobile phones and pot-holes—you know the really big long-term challenges that are facing us as a country.The Green Party is here to tackle those big long-term challenges that we face and I do want to take a moment to acknowledge the Hon Marama Davidson and her work alongside affected communities to deliver Te Aorerekura. It is our first national strategy to end family violence and sexual violence in this country building on the foundations laid last term by Jan Logie—kia ora. The Greens have taken action to protect our critically endangered wildlife and our wild places and for that I also again want to acknowledge Eugenie Sage—kia ora. I also want to acknowledge the entire Green Party caucus who have worked with our Labour colleagues to progress alcohol regulation rainbow rights electoral reform ACC seabed-mining immigration public housing pay equity saving the St James Theatre and the control of deer and wild goats and for all of that—for all of that and much more—I do want to thank the Prime Minister and the Cabinet and our Labour comrades for your partnership and your friendship. We know how much you love our unique combination of humble comradeship and being right about everything all the time.I also want to acknowledge our colleagues in Te Paati Māori. When you called on me to resign it took me right back home to a Green Party AGM—thanks I think. Rawiri Waititi: We're going with the theme—we're going with the theme. Hon JAMES SHAW: Ha ha! And Mr Speaker I do want to thank you for your leadership in this House as so many others have and your support team: the Office of the Clerk the Chamber staff the select committee staff parliamentary messengers and the Parliamentary Library security Copperfields travel and transport the maintenance team the gardeners the cleaners the people who make our democracy function—thank you. To our Greens staff you are truly incredible. Without your work Marama and I would be perhaps reduced to thinking for ourselves or even worse making our own social media graphics. Thank you also to the thousands of volunteers knocking on doors and making calls to get more Green MPs into the next Parliament and more Green Ministers sitting around the next Cabinet table.None of us can stand by when we see a way to prevent future tragedies like the floods in Auckland and around the North Island earlier this year. For decades—for decades—politicians have made excuses for why they cannot do things at the pace or the scale that we need to solve those connected crises of climate change of biodiversity loss and of intergenerational poverty and the Green Party does not accept those excuses. The decisions that will be made in the next term of Parliament must build on the foundations that we have laid for an Aotearoa where everyone has what they need to live with dignity within the boundaries of the planet and that is what is on the ballot paper this year. Ko tēnei te wā—the time is now. Nō reira tēnā koutou tēnā koutou tēna koutou katoa."