Swarbrick Chlöe; Rurawhe AdrianCHLÖE SWARBRICK (Green): E Te Māngai tēnā koe tēnā koutou e Te Whare. It is always a good day to be passing climate action into law and today has been a long time coming. Most recently hundreds of thousands of young people—many too young to vote—have fought in the streets so that we can fight in our seats. We can have a clean green policy that ensures all of us live good meaningful lives of belonging in our communities. We can't pretend that it is somehow natural that human beings are destroying the very climate that we rely on to survive. It has been the decision of successive Governments to short-change future generations by selling off their future and calling it GDP.Today there's been a lot of talk about the economy. The economy importantly is the study and policy of the allocation and maximisation of our resources. It's not some ambiguous deity some unknown god-like entity that gets angry which we've got to sacrifice to. It is a system that politicians have designed and we can change it. Politicians—many of whom have occupied this Chamber before us—have for years prioritised sacrifice of our collective quality of living have sacrificed our shared environment. Ironically they have actually privatised profit and socialised costs. All of us are picking up the bill. Those politicians have constructed a system that exploits both people and the planet. Today we say that enough is enough. Today we create a legal obligation to reduce our climate emissions in this country to keep warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This is a triumph for climate activists and advocates everywhere but particularly here in Aotearoa New Zealand. We have reached the starting line and now comes more action.Talk of global warming was once dismissed as fringe and today I would say it is unfortunately mainstream because it's not theoretical anymore. Its effects are felt in increasing temperatures in rising sea levels in ocean acidification crop failures resource shortages mass migration and so much more. People like the Greens were once dismissed for highlighting the need to act as far back as 30 years ago when our party was formed under a palpable sense of urgency for a political alternative. Today a Green Party MP our co-leader the Minister for Climate Change—a Green Minister for Climate Change—my colleague the Hon James Shaw is leading the passage of this zero carbon bill but we need to go further and we need to go faster and we can. Activism works so act.Countries cannot continue to point the finger at each other playing this daft game of chicken arguing that they will have to wait for others to act before they do as we all watch the world burn. That's why it is important that a small country of five million people with six times as many sheep floating at the bottom of the Pacific commits in law to stay below 1.5 degrees. Our action gives others permission. Our action sets precedent. It proves it is possible and shows other countries and the citizens of those countries what their Governments can do.While many have called for climate action to be apolitical it is critical to realise that today is only happening because of politics. Decades of inaction have come courtesy of political decision-making and climate action is happening now as a result of political decision-making. When the public watch Parliament when they watch politicians behave badly and decide to opt out of engaging I want them to know the perverse impact that sees that very behaviour continue. When people who want change decide to sit down the status quo has an excuse to keep on going. If people don't like their politicians they need to realise it is within their power to throw them in the bin. Find someone in your community who you do like and support them in running. That is what politics should be.I am reminded frequently of the chant I chanted with the tens of thousands of school strikers as we marched down Queen Street only a few weeks ago: Show me what democracy looks like! This is what democracy looks like!" Democracy needs all of us or it will not work for all of us.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Adrian Rurawhe): I call Angie Warren-Clark—five minutes."