Hughes GarethGARETH HUGHES (Green): Talofa lava kia orana bula vinaka kia ora. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou kia ora. I want to welcome our many parliamentary friends from the Pacific Islands who are watching this special debate in the House tonight. Right now in Morocco 197 other nations—many of your representatives—have gathered to discuss our greatest shared threat: climate change. I would like to reflect on what it means for our home—the Pacific. The Pacific Islands are on the front line of climate change. The Islands are seeing the impacts of climate change right now. They are experiencing more severe storms droughts and rising seas and are facing the very real prospect of seeing whole nations being submerged.I remember visiting Kiribati a few years back and talking to people on this heavily populated low-lying coral atoll which is no more than about half a metre above sea level. I was talking to people about what they were doing because the seas were already rising over the beaches. They were using whatever they could including rubbish and garbage to try to build sea walls to keep out the waves which keep getting higher every year. It is something that has stuck in my mind powerfully since then. What can you say to someone—perhaps a child—on that beach when you know that in their lifetime they may need to flee those rising seas and leave their homeland for ever? How can I as a New Zealand MP say that my country knew about the science knew about the threat and knew about the urgency but still as emissions that contribute to climate change and cause climate change grew its Government's ambitions were to follow. All I can say to that child is I am sorry.I believe in taking responsibility. I am a citizen of New Zealand. Although I am in the Opposition this Government represents me on the global stage. Its claims its actions and its inactions reflect on me and all New Zealanders. On climate change all I can say is that I am sorry. I am sorry that New Zealand increased its emissions 19 percent above where we promised they would be when we knew we had to reduce them. I am doubly sorry that following this the Government's own projections are a doubling of our emissions of what they were in 1990. I apologise for the inaction of our leaders—that they have made an argument that New Zealand is just a small part of global emissions so we do not really matter. Hell! You live in small countries. Imagine making that argument. Climate change will not give anyone a free ride.I am sorry that New Zealand is the fifth-highest polluter per person in the developed world. We did try to reduce emissions with a trading scheme but I am sorry that we knowingly traded in fraudulent carbon credits from Russia and Ukraine that did not actually reduce the pollution we claimed. I am sorry we then undermined the whole thing when we exempted our biggest source of pollution—agriculture—and subsidised it to give it a free ride.I apologise and I am horrified that we are often the bad guys of these international climate talks that are happening right now in Morocco—trying to disrupt and weaken global climate action. Just last night we were singled out of amongst 197 countries for being an obstructionist at the talks. I am sorry that last year in Paris we took a meagre reduction target—described by the experts as inadequate—because we had not actually bothered decreasing emissions beforehand and we said it was too hard. I am also sorry that at those historic talks we promised $2 million in climate aid for the Pacific but it actually turned out to be a reduction on previous years much like the chocolate ration from 1984—I am talking about the book. At least we had 80 percent renewable electricity in New Zealand—right? That is more than most countries but we forget—and I am sorry—that that is less than we had in 1980 and it is less than we had in 1990. I am remorseful that New Zealand announced this year that our single-biggest source of emissions and pollution the Huntly power station would not close as was planned and will continue burning coal into the next decade. At least our transport Minister announced an electric vehicle policy—eight times for the same policy—but I am sorry that his targets are less than his officials' own do-nothing scenario. I am sorry that we are subsidising trying to find oil deep off our coasts when we know we cannot afford to burn it if we want to stop those rising seas. I am regretful that this year my country opened up an area of a size bigger than Spain for oil exploration off our coasts. I am gutted that our Government then called out the navy on indigenous protesters protecting their moana from deep-sea drilling and then under urgency this Parliament made protesting against oil drilling at sea a criminal act. I am sorry our Minister sent the message that fossil fuels were OK when the Government opened new polluting power stations supported fracking and opened coalminers' offices. I am sorry we did all that but then signed a piece of paper at Paris and pretended we were doing our bit. For future generations and our friends from the Pacific I am sorry we have not done what has been needed on climate change but in fact have done the exact reverse. I think it is important to acknowledge and apologise because these are not the values of New Zealanders and it goes against our history. These are actions by politicians selfishly and myopically looking at the world. They take an approach to the climate negotiations as you would a trade deal: trying to maximise individual advantage and trying to get a better deal not thinking of the global picture or your homes. This is not New Zealand. We have been proud that we have always pulled our weight on the world stage. Imagine if we had taken the same approach as we have taken on climate change to World War II. Imagine if New Zealand had argued against going nuclear-free because it would not matter because we are so small. As a country New Zealand has borne the impacts and the skin cancers of the ozone hole despite us being amongst the least responsible for it on the planet. We of anyone on earth should be more sympathetic to reducing our pollution—the fifth-highest in the developed world—because of those impacts on people who are the least responsible. I believe the greatest biggest challenge to tackling climate change is the new President-Elect Donald Trump. But although he may deny the science what we are doing here is denying meaningful action. Our climate policy has been more insidious. Rather than brash speeches and ignorant tweets we have worked the back rooms of international negotiations we have developed political strategies with other polluting nations and we have worked just as busily if not more effectively at slowing climate change action and encouraging those loopholes. In my last couple of minutes I do want to offer hope though. Kiwis are a good people and we have pulled our weight in the past. This is not just an economic a political or a scientific issue; this is a moral issue and New Zealanders care about people living in other countries. We can act altruistically and reduce emissions—it sure is the right thing to do—but we can also act in our own interests and grow jobs by investing in greentech and clean energy. In New Zealand we have a wealth of solutions available. We are a smart and innovative people and we could be the leaders in developing the new technology for a low-carbon world.As emissions inexorably increase so does the global movement and opposition to pollution. And many on the front lines are our Pacific leaders—out in front at these negotiations. In New Zealand just today we saw Canterbury Regional Council add its name to Dunedin City Council to Auckland Council and to Christchurch City Council in opposing the Government's oil drilling agenda. We have seen our investors move away from fossil fuels. Our Churches are divesting. We have seen strong principled opposition to pollution like the Dakota Access pipeline in Standing Rock and we have seen it here as Te Whānau-a-Apanui and others have led as the oil companies flee. We have seen more—but $100 billion more—invested in renewable electricity generation over fossil fuels last year. We have seen the price of solar power plummet we have seen China close 1000 coalmines and we saw Australia this week announce it is shutting down one of its biggest coal-fired power stations. Climate change does not have to be a reality. Rising seas do not have to be a reality. Growing jobs cleaner energy—these can be a reality. We can choose to invest in 100 percent renewable electricity. We can choose to electrify our public transport fleets. We can choose to do the right thing. To future generations and Pacific leaders I do not want to say sorry. I want to say much like our most famous New Zealander once said: We knocked the bastard off." We can knock the climate change bastard off too."