Woods Megan: Climate Change (Divestment from Fossil Fuels) Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWoods Megan: Climate Change (Divestment from Fossil Fuels) Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 11 November 2015. Volume:710;Page:7930. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr MEGAN WOODS (Labour—Wigram): It is my pleasure to take a call on the first reading of the Climate Change (Divestment from Fossil Fuels) Bill and signal that Labour will be supporting this bill’s referral to the select committee.There are important questions that we need to ask. Let us stop and rationally consider what we are talking about here unlike that last speech which I have to say was one of the most disturbing contributions in this House that I have heard. That was a speech from the chairperson of the Finance and Expenditure Committee a man who is charged with leading the select committee of this Parliament that examines the economic questions. That would have to go down as one of the most economically illiterate speeches I have heard.What I put back to the Government members of this House is that their Government has signed up to a 50 percent emissions reduction target by 2050. If this is not a plan for part of our way to reduce emissions then what is? What is the plan? This is why Labour is supporting this piece of legislation. We have very clear policy—we have to take climate change seriously. We have said that we are committed to a low-carbon economy and that we have to have requisite planning in place for us to get there. We think that this bill offers a really interesting way for us to examine whether or not this is the way for us to do it.Of course there will be questions we will ask at the select committee as we do with any piece of legislation like the hard-working diligent members of the committee we are. We will ask whether this is the way for us as Labour members to achieve a just transition. We will ask the questions around whether this is the right piece of legislation to help us achieve what we want to see and it is a goal that we share with the Greens. I would have liked to see that it is a goal we can share around this Parliament without it being caught up in the petty party politics that we have just heard from the previous Government speaker.We need to reduce our emissions. We have to take climate change seriously. At the moment our planet is on target for a 3 to 4 degree rise in temperature unless we as a global community do something about this. We are seeing climate change denial smirks all around the House—I can see that—but we need to do something. We are going to Paris in only a month and we as a country will have to show what part we are going to take in the world’s efforts to address this. New Zealand recently won a seat on the Security Council by saying we were going to take a leadership role in the Pacific. Well there is no greater leadership role that New Zealand needs to take for its Pacific neighbours than a leadership role on climate change. This is a real and present issue for our region for our country and for our neighbours. If we idly sit here and refuse to do anything such as the previous Government speaker was indicating we will end up exactly where this Government is and that is with no plan. The Government set targets. It failed to meet them. There is no planning no budgeting and no plan as to how we are going to cut emissions.I am fearful about the costs we are leaving to future generations. I want a Government member to explain this to me: if not this then how are we going to meet the 50 percent reduction by 2050 which the Government has signed up to? Where are the costs going to fall and how are we going to manage that over the next 50-year period unless we start taking action now? The contribution from that Government speaker seems to be the only solution we got. There was absolutely no alternative. It was just no no and no to this bill. But how is the target going to be achieved?There are good questions that need to be asked about this bill and Labour is happy to examine it at the select committee and take part in what I hope will be a very constructive conversation around how we can be planning for our future. Thank you.