Davidson MaramaHon MARAMA DAVIDSON (Co-Leader—Green): Tēnā koe Madam Speaker tēnā koutou ki tēnei Whare tēnā koutou katoa. As we have all expressed we are all seeing right now climate change exasperating the devastation of weather events on our whenua and our communities; particularly over these past few weeks. People have died and I acknowledge every single one of their whānau and communities who are grieving at this loss right now. People have been scared for their lives and have endured traumatic nights and days without food and water and shelter and company. Livelihoods destroyed homes lost and people frightened about the future and feeling really uncertain about what is going to happen. And it has actually been difficult to find the gravity—words to express the heartbreak for those most impacted on right now. But I am hearing all of us give our heart and I give my commitment also to supporting our country to supporting those communities. This is a wake-up call—another wake-up call—for us to use our collective positions of privilege and power to better protect and support the people we serve.My co-leader James Shaw has made it clear that every one of us in this House must prioritise restoring our communities so they are more able to manage and deal with the exasperating impacts of climate change. Quite simply people's lives depend on us working together and making enduring decisions as well as the immediate ones. Things did not have to be this bad. Political decisions made over generations have also exacerbated the loss that we are seeing. We should have done more to reduce our pollution to prevent that extra warming of the planet. We should have made better decisions about how we use the land and how we build communities. I want to posit in this part of my kōrero: we should have also listened to more schools of knowledge and thought. Diversity in intelligence and knowledge is a blessing. Mātauranga Māori has so much to offer us some of that simply included in even the way that we have named our regions—Waikino" offers us a clear clue as to what might be expected of that environment. We can make better decisions now though. The future—right now we have that power. It's in our hands. Unfortunately we also know that for those who were already just getting by—on that precipice of poverty for example—weather events like the ones that we've just seen will simply be too much to bear. The hardships from these storms and floods as we know can lead to trauma that can reverberate for generations which is why I'll continue to push also and support Minister Verrall in the healing support the healing services that so many communities are going to need from such trauma.Now who will bear the worst of such weather events and climate events? I think it's clear that it won't be us particularly here in this House today who have resource and power to be able to call on; who have privilege—unlike many others. Everyone affected today is facing a terrible ordeal. I am also mindful of people who rent people without insurance those on low incomes and receiving income support those who were already homeless Māori and Pasifika communities extremely isolated communities and migrant families disabled people and those already battling with mental and physical health issues.What is certain however is that inequitable outcomes should not be inevitable. How we respond to the challenges people face today will shape the Aotearoa our mokopuna can hope for tomorrow. We don't need to look any further than our own local street or local marae to see people showing us here in Government how to lead in the face of disaster. It is our communities that keep showing up—and keep showing us what hope looks like with its sleeves rolled up or its gumboots on.Local communities as many have said here today have shown us that it is possible to make sure no one is left behind because they know who everyone is they know where they are and they know what they need. This is the power that we have to consistently give over and resource for communities to be able to help in the way that only they know how. Everyone deserves support and to be treated with dignity no matter what their backstory is or where they've come from to ask for help. Together we are stronger as is indicated in one of our most well-known phrases: Nāku te rourou nāu te rourou ka ora ai te iwi. "With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive"—and indeed the food baskets have been getting shared even and especially from those who have so little to share already. We've been hearing stories of the last bit of kai that neighbours have had—go out on to the street and share it with people who have nothing. This is the Aotearoa that I love; this is the Aotearoa that we know. We've also seen that when the political will is there to put—ah—unhelpful bureaucracy aside the Government is flexible and focused on supporting communities to get resources to where they're most needed. And that is something that the Greens are going to be particularly mindful of because we've seen in many of our rollouts over time in other situations—and yes including in the pandemic—that the support didn't always get to those who most needed it in the first instance so that's something we will continue to be mindful of. I have been inspired to see our agencies and emergency response teams on the ground working side by side with our community: it's where we should be and where we must continue to be in this approach as we recover and rebuild and across all our work in the Government. So how do we give our children and mokopuna hope that their futures are safe in our hands? We must be accountable and we must do things differently. We are the first nation in the world to see the light each day yet our policies and systems have left many people living in the dark.I acknowledge the new Prime Minister's commitment to continue the shared work between his Labour Party and our Green Party. Together we are beginning to address the long-term problems inherited from decades of previous Governments of all sorts of colours—the housing crisis climate change and entrenched generational inequality. As the Minister for the Prevention of Family Violence and Sexual Violence I wanted to say here in my short time today: violence is never OK. I acknowledge that following traumatic events we have seen here and around the world that trauma can lead to extra stresses which can sometimes lead to increased violence and harm particularly for women and girls. I am making it very clear that there is support out there for people to reach out to that police are working and linking properly with those organisations who are respected and trusted on the ground and know exactly how to help that there is support for those who are concerned about their own behaviour towards others in their own family or close circles and that there are numbers like 0800 HEY BRO and other support services available. And I urge all of our MPs to send these safety messages out to your communities to your networks: there is help available; please reach out for help—and it will be there because we are aware that we have to monitor and keep an eye on these extra stresses and that violence is never OK there is never any justification but we acknowledge that the stresses can sometimes increase that risk. I will end on the work of Te Aorerekura the first ever fully comprehensive and intergenerational strategy to eliminate family violence and sexual violence a priority for me as a Minister—and for this country and many in the sector. And I just wanted to highlight that once again Te Aorerekura has made it clear that the community must lead this work with Government support and once again we are seeing exactly how important that is in the response around our country in those areas and neighbourhoods most impacted. Te Aorerekura simply affirms that mandate and that we are going to have to get real and ensure our communities can cut through all of the barriers that we have far too often put in front of them to do their work; to get on with the job but with the Government also taking responsibility for the way our own agencies have far too often perpetrated further harm on top of harm already experienced. That is the priority that I will also look forward to continuing. Thank you Madam Speaker."