Allan KiritapuKIRITAPU ALLAN (Labour): Hope for a generationNot beyond my reachJust beyond my sightHope for a generationHope for a generationKi a koutou ā tātou nei taiohi ā tātou nei rangatahi kua whai atu kua whawhai tonu mō tēnei rā whakahirahira. Ko koutou tērā. Ko koutou tērā. Te mana o tēnei rā ki a koutou ki a koutou ā te wā.[To you our youth our young people who have pursued who have fought for this important day. That is you. That is you. The importance of this day to you to you when the time comes.]I got a bit nervous singing there and I've been feeling a bit nervous because when I think about the monumental occasion for me of this bill I can only but turn and thank the generation that is coming through that has gone and taken to the streets—that has taken to the classrooms that has taken to the beaches—and that has been a constant and continuous loud speaker to us in this House but also to those people in your own communities to ensure that today we do the right thing. We do the right thing as people that stand in political leadership but we do the right thing for those generations that follow after us and those many many generations to come.We have a saying in our culture:Ka pū te ruha ka hao te rangatahi.[When the old net wears out it will be replaced by a new one.]When the old nets get a little bit tired it's time to chuck them away and let those young leaders come through. For me it has been the young people that have led us in a cultural shift but I will say that has been done on the back of many generations that have fought in turn for this day. The Prime Minister said earlier that it was 10 years ago when she pointed across to the other side of the House and she said—she was sitting in that seat and she had to ask this House—they sat there and there was no universal consensus that climate change was actually a real thing. We have moved far beyond that. So I do want to acknowledge those people that have fought for the long legacy to ensure the mana and restoration of our whaea Papatūānuku.But too in turn as the chair of our rural caucus for the Labour Party I too want to take a leaf out of my colleague from opposite in the House's book and speak directly to the food producers of our nation. I want to speak directly to those who are living in our rural constituencies. I am a proud product of rural New Zealand. I hail from the East Coast born and raised. We grow food. We survive on the whenua. It is the backbone of our economy but so too we are the most vulnerable and susceptible to the impacts of climate change. I go up my coast the mighty East Coast and I look at all of my roads up in Te Kaha and around the coast. It's our coastlines that are eroding.In 2017 we suffered the most monumental flooding event in recent living history. Three hundred families' homes were under water. Edgecumbe if you took the bird's eye view across our town underwent an unprecedented amount of rainfall during a specific period in time. The trajectory the predictions the science tells us that the rainfall will increase in regional areas like ours in the East Coast if we do nothing to curb the tide and address climate change.This is not the urban liberals fighting against the rural constituents and communities. This is a bill for our country and our people and our nation. We all have a part to play in ensuring that this country is not just a world leader because I mean that's great—it's great to be a world leader and we consistently are—but it's actually to ensure the viability of our regional communities up and down this country because I myself and many people on this side of the House actually live in the regions. We aren't corporate executives at some of those big companies that are trying to do things and are based in the urban centres. No we live and breathe and survive on the food that we get from our land and our places.So I couldn't be more proud to stand in this House today and I want to acknowledge the work of the Hon James Shaw in reaching out your hand to our future generations those people who are coming through the ranks to our food producers that you've worked tirelessly with alongside the Rt Hon Jacinda Ardern to ensure that today we leave a legacy for future generations to ensure that we tackle climate change and set a real trajectory for future generations moving forward. Tēnā koutou.