Mahuta NanaiaHon NANAIA MAHUTA (Minister of Foreign Affairs): Tēnā koe e te Kaiwhakawā. Tuatahi tēnei ka whakaarohia ki te kaupapa kei mua i te aroaro e pā ana ki tō tātou taiao me ā tātou nei hiahia ki te tiaki i a Papatūānuku mō te āpōpō te take nō reira ka tīpako tērā kōrero nō tōku tūpuna E kore tēnei oranga e huri ki tua o āku mokopuna".[Firstly I consider the matter that is before us at the moment—our environment and our desire to protect Papatūānuku for future generations. Therefore I will use the words of my ancestor to make the point "This way of life will not continue beyond the days of my grandchildren when we shall reach salvation."]Can I just say that today is the kind of day where you want to debate the issue of a climate emergency because we know that the more we do now in some very practical ways the better the future will be for many of our children around New Zealand. There's a Chinese proverb that says that the best time to plant a tree is 20 years ago; the next best time is today. So what we're doing is stating very clearly that a climate emergency declaration is our opportunity to put a stake in the ground and say we must do more.In fact we have done a lot in the last three years. So I just want to respond to some of the remarks of the previous contributions because when we announced that we would undertake an effort to plant more trees—one billion trees by 2028—there was a whole lot of guffaw on the other side of the House but that was an opportunity for us to again create jobs contribute back to the environment and make a big difference in this area. Stopping new offshore oil and gas exploration permits—again a clear signal that we were drawing a line in the sand about what would not be sustainable or in the best interests of our kids going forward into the future. We weren't going to leave that to chance in terms of regional economies; we're going to help them transition into this new future a low-carbon economy and what they could do to generate jobs by regions and Taranaki has been the focus. Our goal of 100 percent renewable electricity generation by 2030 I believe is something that has created a lot of excitement throughout the country. When we look at local community projects that are now starting to be generated we can gain much encouragement from that. Our investment in rail trains public transport walking and cycleways again signals a very strong intention. Can I just go to my own region in the Waikato. We are positioned between Auckland and Tauranga port; having rail from Auckland to Hamilton is a significant opportunity to get trucks off the road and the passage of goods by rail thus reducing emissions—again a significant contribution just in the last three years. The 100 million Green Investment Fund Jobs for Nature our world-first partnership with farmers to reduce primary sector emissions and the launch of Te Taiao Fit for a Better World to signal that we are leaning into this space of doing more—actions speak louder than words and we are demonstrating that we are committed to action. The Prime Minister's announcement today is to say very clearly that we must lead by example. So the public sector must absolutely demonstrate that they will make the changes that can influence further change potentially in the private sector. I'm so proud of phasing out the use of coal boilers in the State sector ensuring that we move the Government fleet towards electric vehicles so that we can gain greater efficiencies in the way that we—our people—in the Public Service move around the country and ensuring that we're putting energy efficiency building standards on all mandated agencies of the offices that Government services occupy. They are all practical things and steps that send a very big signal.Just this time last year round about I was in Napier and young children were marching to the local community centre around climate change. I was actually at a Society of Local Government Managers conference and at the time several local authorities had already called a local climate emergency because fires flooding droughts—all these natural hazards that were impacting on our day-to-day lives—were very real challenges. Local governments are stepping up to the plate because they know something needs to be done. And here we have today the Prime Minister calling a climate emergency not for any political reason but actually because our kids deserve it. Their kids deserve it and if the lot on the other side really really wanted to work with us we could all do something tangible together so that all our kids will have a better future than what they've inherited."