Sio Hon Aupito WilliamHon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Minister for Pacific Peoples): It is a pleasure to follow the First Citizen of the Regions". In that same vein I now want to turn to the "First Citizen of the Pacific". Yesterday a historic event took place in the halls of this Parliament when the Rt Hon Winston Peters the Deputy Prime Minister delivered a speech entitled "First Steps". This follows from a recent visit led by the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern and Winston Peters round the Pacific which we call the "Pacific reset". I want to acknowledge that this is a significant step even though members on the other side of the House may not see it as such. You see Pacific peoples are an integral part of this country of ours. More than 62 percent of the 400000 Pasifika people who call New Zealand home are born here. This is their home. This is their tūrangawaewae yet their historic connections to the region to the islands is similar to when urban Māori return to the marae or when urban Māori return to their iwi. For somebody like myself if somebody dies in the family we return them to our ancestral homes in the Pacific; we return them to our cultural lands in the Pacific. So that's the context. I think it really is significant that when we are talking about the essential foundational building blocks for New Zealand—in terms of housing health education and lifting incomes for the residents of New Zealand—by its very nature and the connections of the Pacific people we also must talk about the Pacific region. I feel that as a proud New Zealand citizen of Pacific heritage I feel like I should be standing at the top of Māngere Mountain and shouting from the rooftop about what occurred yesterday. It's not well-known by this region. The other side will throw stones.SPEAKER: Sorry we've got a slight clock problem. Two minutes.Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: That's all right. Just give me five minutes then Mr Speaker. The other side will throw stones as if somehow we're providing some sort of a beneficiary to the Pacific. That is not so. That is so far from the truth. The word that they are missing is "reciprocation"—"reciprocation". It is never to the benefit to the Pacific; it's usually benefiting New Zealand. It's trade that benefits New Zealand; it's the sports athleticism of the Pacific that benefits New Zealand. Those family connections are so important but more importantly as the Prime Minister Jacinda has often said and was repeated—SPEAKER: Order! The Prime Minister's full name.Hon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: The Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern has said that climate change is the nuclear-free challenge of her generation. It is self-evident—we saw that with her carrying a child. She is speaking for the future generations yet unborn. For the Pacific there is a sense of urgency. All of us who have family connection to Tuvalu to Kiribati to Tokelau—we are fearful of what will happen to those islands if the world does not get on board and reduce their carbon emissions. Now we are doing all we can as a nation but evidently we've also got to be looking to the Pacific region because the emergency that I fear will occur at some stage if the world does not recognise the point of no return is that islands such as Tuvalu Tokelau and Kiribati will be knocking at our doorstep. That investment is about not just investing in the Pacific but also in investing for our security investing for the betterment of New Zealand going forward."