Faafoi Kris: Environmental Reporting Bill — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFaafoi Kris: Environmental Reporting Bill — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4870. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): It is an honour to take a call on Part 2 of the Environmental Reporting Bill and that will become a bit more apparent as I continue through my speech. I do want to speak to Supplementary Order Paper 92 under the name of Su’a William Sio which seeks to make amendments to clauses 7 and 10 and in a nutshell that is by inserting within the bill provisions to include the state of New Zealand’s economic environmental activities and the impacts on the Pacific region climate ecosystems and its people. I think that is a very important addition to this piece of legislation and one that I hope that the Government will consider because it is not just the environment of New Zealand as we know it but also of our Pacific neighbours and some of those Pacific nations that New Zealand has responsibility for.As I mentioned it does include a responsibility for this nation to take into account the Pacific’s climate and its ecosystems and I would like to take this opportunity if it is OK to pay tribute to someone from the Tokelau islands who passed away in the last week and who used to be the Faipule or leader of the atoll that my parents came from Fakaofo—that is Foua Toloa. He was as I say the leader of the Tokelauan atoll of Fakaofo. He also served on the Global Ocean Commission and he crusaded throughout his life in dedication to the health and well-being of the Tokelau islands around the environmental economic and social stability of that nation. I think the measure that has been posed by Su’a William Sio will be very well looked upon by Foua who passed away this time last week. To ensure within this Environmental Reporting Bill some kinds of measures to make sure that we can look after the Pacific is something that I think Foua would be very very supportive of.Can I take this opportunity to pass my condolences and the love of this House to his family: to Logo his wife; to their six children; and especially to his brother Luther whom we had been dealing with in the last couple of weeks as Foua fought the last stages of cancer and passed away. The health of the oceans was something that was very big to him and during last year he gave a very good speech to the Global Ocean Commission to make sure that not just this nation but all nations take action to make sure that the health of the Pacific Ocean and other oceans is there for not just our generation but generations to come.I think we are seeing some things happen in the Pacific Islands and the Pacific Ocean that most New Zealanders if they knew what was going on would be very very disturbed by. I think this Supplementary Order Paper in the name of my colleague Su’a William Sio makes sure that this piece of legislation does not pertain just to what is going on here in New Zealand but also to its territories and the Pacific Ocean and we have a big interest in what goes on there. So I would hope that members on the other side of the Chamber would take that into consideration because it does take on some of the responsibilities that this nation has to some of those smaller nations and we have talked about them within another piece of legislation—the likes of Tokelau the likes of the Cook Islands and the likes of Niue which we have a very special relationship with. So I would to like to commend my colleague Su’a William Sio for making sure that the environmental activities that we undertake and the economic activities that we undertake are taken into consideration when we look at what is happening in the Pacific and how that is affecting the ecosystems in the Pacific and as I mentioned especially the oceans.This is going to be only a 5-minute speech but I did just want to again pass on this House’s recognition of the contribution that Foua made to the Tokelauan community here in New Zealand and to that of the community the very small community of around 1500 on the three atolls themselves especially when it came to ensuring the environmental future of the oceans around the Tokelau islands and we wish his family all the love and respect that we afford them.