Sio Hon Aupito WilliamHon AUPITO WILLIAM SIO (Minister for Pacific Peoples): Congratulations Madam Speaker on your election. I want to say in response to the previous speaker Nicola Willis words matter. Words matter as well as commitments. My elders would say E pala maʻa ae le pala upu."—meaning "Rocks turn to dust but words will always remain." This declaration is important words. This declaration is an important commitment is another step on top of everything else that we have introduced since coming into the administration. It is another step towards helping New Zealand transform into a nation of low-level emissions.In order for us to do that it requires us to act at the scale of the Industrial Revolution and at the speed of the Digital Revolution. It isn't just one thing; it is many things and already we have shown and demonstrated the One Billion Trees programme; stopping new offshore oil and gas exploration permits; our record investments in rail trains buses; and our world-first partnership with farmers to reduce primary sector emissions. Fact: the Earth is warming. Fact: oceans are rising. Fact: the ice sheet melts continue. Fact: our climates are getting hotter wetter and drier. These are absolute facts and it's happening right now. So this declaration of a climate change emergency is an important stake in the ground. It sends a signal it declares our commitment but it also will inspire others. I saw earlier young people up there in the gallery. I hope it will inspire young people to do the right thing. It is a declaration that is based on science and it is not a statement of aspiration but a statement of fact.One only needs to look around the regions. We see coastal erosion. Our climate change advisers have advised Parliament about what is happening around our coastal regions. Our stocks and our livelihoods have been destroyed. Floods—all of those things are happening around us. We don't need to look very far. Homes have been destroyed. Local councils can't figure out who to pay for that. Livelihoods jobs are at stake and even lives.I want to acknowledge the indigenous perspective that has been introduced in the debate here because that's important. From a Pacific perspective climate change is a consequence of the failure of the market. They know that since the Industrial Revolution the rich and wealthy have gotten richer—more wealthy—while the poor become poorer. And since the Industrial Revolution they have seen how the costs of pollution have been socialised and the benefits have been privatised. Tuvalu Kiribati Tokelau the Marshall Islands—those islands are fighting for their lives. They're fighting for their homes. So this statement is New Zealand putting a stake in the ground acknowledging that indigenous knowledge has a thing to say—about whanaungatanga. We are family and therefore we have a duty of care a responsibility not only for our own population and future population but for the population of the vast Pacific Ocean.So I want to stand here and acknowledge the leadership of the Prime Minister when she said that this was a nuclear-free moment for her generation. We're not going to resolve this overnight. It's going to take time but the steps that we have taken the commitments that we have made as a Government—and that side did commit to the carbon-free emissions goal last year so I don't know what's going on there. I think the true leader ought to step forward. The one who should be the spokesperson for climate change should step forward and stop messing around."