Norman Russel: Motions — Cyclone Pam—Expression of Support for Vanuatu and Other Pacific CountriesText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: Motions — Cyclone Pam—Expression of Support for Vanuatu and Other Pacific Countries[Sitting date: 17 March 2015. Volume:704;Page:2256. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green):Mifala i talem sori tumas long yufala evriwan long Vanuatu. The Green Party’s thoughts and condolences are with the people of Vanuatu whose country has been devastated by super-cyclone Pam. Our sympathies are with the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones in this disaster with reports of many deaths and many more injured. We are also thinking about the wider Vanuatu community in New Zealand and abroad. We hope that they have been able to contact their loved ones and be assured of their safety.But as well as expressing our condolences and sympathies today we also express our pain and anger in solidarity with our Pacific neighbours who are bearing the brunt of climate change. Messages of condolences from this House will have no meaningful effect if they are not backed by actions to ensure that such horrors are not repeated. If Cyclone Pam has taught us nothing else it is that the time for leadership on climate change is now. Tropical Cyclone Pam had the strongest winds of any South Pacific tropical cyclone on record. Waiting and doing nothing on climate means bigger cyclones more death and destruction and more speeches in this House while the people of the Pacific plead for action. What our brothers and sisters in the Pacific need to hear from us today is that we take their plight seriously and that we take climate change seriously and that we will take meaningful action to reduce our emissions and show climate leadership on the world stage and actually try to stop the increasing intensity of these super-storms.Vanuatu’s President Baldwin Lonsdale has said that climate change is a key factor in the loss of life destruction and wreckage left in the wake of super-cyclone Pam. He said: “Climate change is contributing to the disaster in Vanuatu.” He was not alone in linking this disaster to climate change. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Saturday that climate change is making extreme weather the new normal. Super-cyclones should not be the new normal. Their increasing size is a human-made aberration. There is nothing normal about changing our climate and causing mass devastation as we have seen.But it was not just the President of Vanuatu and the Secretary-General of the United Nations making the link between Cyclone Pam and climate change. There was also the Vice-President of the World Bank Rachel Kyte. She is calling out Governments whose policies do not reflect the urgency that is needed to act on climate change. The President of Vanuatu the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the Vice-President of the World Bank are all making the link and all calling for action.This tragedy is in our neighbourhood and must serve as a wake-up call for real leadership and action on climate change in New Zealand. Our part of the world is uniquely vulnerable to the changing climate. The United Nations World Risk Report systematically considers a country’s vulnerabilities and its exposure to natural hazards. No. 1 on its list is Vanuatu and No. 2 is the Philippines. Vanuatu’s super-cyclone Pam the Philippines’ super-typhoon Haiyan—if we truly want to see the people of Vanuatu the Philippines and the rest of the Pacific live their lives without the constant fear and threat of climate change - related disasters then we need to take action.I would like to commend the Government for its initial response of sending assistance to Vanuatu but in addition to aid and rebuild assistance why do we not also make reducing our carbon emissions at home part of our response to this tragedy? Why do we not commit to showing global readership at the Paris climate conference later this year? Why not make our response an enduring solution to climate change rather than just a dollar donation to clean up its aftermath? Yes we should be sad. Yes we should send condolences and aid but yes we should also lead on solutions. True empathy from this Parliament would involve playing our part in building a safer world and a more stable climate.