Motions — Cyclone Pam—Expression of Support for Vanuatu and Other Pacific Countries

I seek leave to move a motion without notice in relation to Cyclone Pam.

💬 Mr SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course of action being followed? There is none.

I move, That the House express its support for the people and Government of Vanuatu and other Pacific neighbours affected by Cyclone Pam. Over the weekend, Cyclone Pam cut a path through the Pacific, resulting in reports of damage from Fiji, Tuvalu, Kiribati, and the Solomon Islands. However, the most severely affected country is Vanuatu. When tropical Cyclone Pam hit Vanuatu, it was a category 5 cyclone with winds gusting up to 320 kilometres per hour. In the Efate province, where Vanuatu’s capital, Port Vila, is located, 90 percent of structures have been destroyed or damaged in some way. Thousands have been left homeless, and sadly there are now reports of 24 confirmed fatalities. The most concerning thing is that reports of damage are still to come in from the outlying islands and remote provinces. Cyclone Pam is already the worst disaster in Vanuatu’s recent history, and as we get a better picture of the damage outside Port Vila, we cannot rule out the scale of this catastrophe increasing dramatically. The thoughts of all New Zealanders are with the people of Vanuatu at this difficult time, and we want our neighbours in the Pacific to know that they do not face this disaster alone.

As soon as we were able to on Saturday we launched a Royal New Zealand Air Force P3 Orion to conduct damage assessment flights over Tuvalu, the first nation in Cyclone Pam’s path. As the first reports of damage came in, we announced an initial $1 million contribution in funding to respond to specific requests for assistance in Vanuatu, Fiji, Tuvalu, and the Solomon Islands and for NGOs in Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands to replenish relief supplies. We also sent a Royal New Zealand Air Force C130 to Vanuatu carrying 8 tonnes of relief supplies and emergency personnel. There have now been two further relief flights to Vanuatu and we have upped our funding contribution to $2.5 million. Additional aid flights will depart today and we will continue to assess how we can best assist the people of Vanuatu. Although we are currently focused on the immediate relief effort, it is clear that Vanuatu will need long-term support to recover from this disaster. We already have a significant aid programme in Vanuatu focused on the redevelopment of the port and waterfront infrastructure, and we are looking at how we can best support this long-term rebuild.

There are a number of New Zealanders in Vanuatu, and I know that some families in New Zealand are also facing an anxious wait for news. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade consular offices are contacting New Zealanders in Vanuatu to confirm their well-being, and at this stage the ministry has not received reports of any New Zealand casualties. More than 80 New Zealanders were brought home last night by the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and our high commissioner is working to ensure that those who do need to leave urgently can do so now that commercial flights have resumed.

Once again, the thoughts of this House and all New Zealanders are with Vanuatu as they confront this calamity, and they can take solace from the fact that they do not stand alone. The international community is rallying, and I can assure the House that New Zealand will continue to do all it can to help the relief and recovery efforts.

We support the motion. The destruction caused by Cyclone Pam has been immense and heartbreaking, and I would like to say how much our hearts go out to the people of Vanuatu, who have suffered such a great loss—a loss of life, a loss of homes, a loss of food crops, a loss of those things that make up communities, towns, and cities. Our sympathies also go out to the people of the Solomon Islands and Tuvalu and to the people of the Chatham Islands for the tumult they have been through in these last couple of days. To the people of Vanuatu, this has been a very hard time for you, and in this hard time we in Labour, we in this Parliament, we in New Zealand, stand with you in your loss, but we also stand with you as you help to rebuild and recover. This has been one of the worst storms to hit the Pacific in living memory. The scenes of destruction we have seen and the seemingly endless stories of loss will be bringing sadness into the lives of many New Zealanders and immense concern and sadness to those from Vanuatu who are on our shores—many here for work—who will be anxiously waiting for news.

But there is little time to mourn. With so much of Vanuatu flattened by this terrible event, we need to take action. If we do not, the catastrophe of Cyclone Pam will only grow as disease and hunger spread. There is great urgency in our task, but by working together with other nations and aid agencies we can ensure that the damage caused by the cyclone does not get even worse. That will mean collective effort to bring food, medicine, and shelter to those who are hit hardest, and to do it quickly. We will do this because we are a family of nations. We are, without doubt, family. We share so much of our culture, so much of our heritage, and so many of our people. Now we share loss, but with it also the hope that by working together as a family, we can rebuild. In this there has been the beginning of hope. The response from the people of New Zealand has been swift and generous, as I found out when holding out the bucket up and down Lambton Quay just a short while ago. We have been drawn together in this loss and we will work hard to salvage and to rebuild Vanuatu. It will take time because there is a lot to do, and we will do it together.

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.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. On behalf of New Zealand First I join with the rest of the House in expressing our support for the people and the Government of Vanuatu. Cyclone Pam is a reminder of the terror and destruction that extreme weather actually brings.

We acknowledge the appropriate increase of New Zealand’s funding to Pacific nations impacted by the storm to $2.5 million. We note that a Hercules aircraft was sent to Vanuatu with relief aid yesterday and that two more leave today. We are pleased to hear that the airport has now been cleared for military aircraft but acknowledge that, as of yesterday, the control tower and navigational equipment were out of action and that there has been significant damage to the international terminal. We believe that only one ward of the country’s main hospital is still functioning after much of the building’s roof was torn off. We know that the HMNZS Canterbury has the facilities for accommodating up to 250 personnel and can transport and deploy supporting military vehicles and equipment by landing craft, helicopters, or ramps, and has the ability to provide medical support to military and civilian operations from a self-contained hospital with surgical capability. We would like to think that if the Canterbury is available, she would be deployed to assist, just as she was in October 2009 when the Canterbury was sent to Samoa following the devastating earthquake and tsunami and in 2011 to Christchurch.

The nation’s capital, Port Vila, has been devastated, with at least 80 percent of buildings damaged or destroyed. Aid workers describe the situation as catastrophic. Up to 10,000 people have been left homeless in the capital, Port Vila, alone.

But New Zealand First also wishes to acknowledge the citizens of Vanuatu working here in New Zealand, and commends the seasonal solutions and the growers who are part of a cooperative that is providing support for these workers.

We also wish to acknowledge the Kiribati community of central Auckland and Warkworth, who are also expressing concern for their loved ones on the island, and we hope that all communications can be re-established as speedily as possible.

Kia ora e te Mana Whakawā, nei rā te mihi atu ki a koe, otirā, te Whare. Tēnei mātou o te Pāti Māori e tū nei ki te tautoko i ngā mihi kua mihia ki a Vanuatu, tērā o ngā tangata whenua o tērā o ngā motu, otirā, ngā motu katoa o te rohe.

[Thank you, Mr Speaker. I really acknowledge you and the House at the same time. We of the Māori Party stand to endorse the tributes accorded to Vanuatu, that one of the indigenous people of those islands, and all the islands of the region.]

We would like to congratulate the Government on its speedy response in sending aid to Vanuatu. In 2008 I had a missionary’s son, who served in the Vanuatu islands for 2 years. When I spoke to him this morning he conveyed a sense of loss and a sense of regret for his friends whom he has been unable to contact. We understand that on the outlying islands Tanna has been the worst hit, and has almost 98 percent of all its dwellings completely obliterated. An aeroplane that was able to fly over the island could not see one structure that was still standing.

The crops have been destroyed, the peoples’ livelihood and income have been lost, but these are a people who are resilient by nature. They are friendly people. They have lived in what some would consider abject poverty for most of their lifetimes. They are subsistence livers, and growers, and farmers. With their crops being destroyed, there is no hope of being able to feed this community, and so the support that the Government has been able to send to Vanuatu will absolutely be necessary now and for the future in restoring the crops to those families. It is not an understatement to say that these people face starvation in the coming weeks if we are not able to get support to them. The aid efforts that have come from New Zealand include temporary housing, water purification, and just hands on the ground.

The people in Vanuatu have not all been able to be contacted; some in the outlying areas remain unaccounted for at this time. We understand that 24 is the current number of those who have been lost, but that number may climb yet. Our thoughts and our aroha go to those people in the island of Vanuatu, specifically. Last night as I lay in Wellington for one of the first times that I have slept here with the wind blowing, I thought to myself “This is nothing but a stiff wind and a small gale.”, and Cyclone Pam was 400 kilometres offshore when our city was struck with rain and wind. I could not imagine the terror that would have been on the faces of the families who were cowering under the intense category 5 cyclone that hit their island.

I want to commend to the House the motion that the Prime Minister has moved, and I look forward to hearing of further support that may come to the Vanuatu, the ni-Vanuatu people for the future for restoring their crops, their livelihood, their food, and their sustenance. Kia ora.

I would like to keep my comments very brief because I feel my sentiments on this topic have been very well canvassed by earlier speakers, in particular the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition. On behalf of the ACT Party, I would like to concur and add our great sorrow and condolences for the terrible loss of livelihood and, worse, of life amongst our Pacific neighbours, particularly Vanuatu. I would also like to join in commending the many New Zealanders who have taken the initiative and voluntarily given to help our Pacific neighbours in their time of need, and I commend this motion to the House. Thank you.

I want to join with others who have expressed support and sympathy for the people of Vanuatu in their horrific travails in the wake of Cyclone Pam. This storm, the greatest of recent years, has wreaked devastation at a level unparalleled in the history of the island. It is one that will take many years to recover from and will leave not just a physical scar but also an emotional scar on the people of Vanuatu.

In a country like New Zealand, we have two responses in situations like this. It is appropriate that we provide what humanitarian and other assistance that we can to help people recover and restore the basic functions of life so that they can get on, but it is also something we need to reflect upon—our wider responsibility to all of the countries in the Pacific, and those that we have a particular relationship with. We are privileged in this country by our comparative prosperity and wealth, and we do not face necessarily the same devastating extremes of weather that they do in parts of the Pacific. Having said that, I want to pay tribute to those people in the far north and on the east coast of New Zealand who have been affected by this storm. There has been significant damage, but I think the distinction is that it is not of a magnitude that imperils the function of the whole country the way the damage that has struck Vanuatu does. I also want to take the opportunity to acknowledge the people of the Chatham Islands. They have faced, in the last 24 hours, the brunt of this storm. They are part of the people of New Zealand and we have a responsibility to them as well to make sure that they can recover effectively.

We live in a very vulnerable part of the world climatically. One of the other speakers has already made reference to that. Although I do not want to indulge in the politics of the matter in an occasion like this, I think it is fair to observe that these circumstances do drive us to reflect upon causes and do drive us to reflect upon what we can do to help island States in such situations and to help our fellow Pacific neighbours get through these terrible tragedies. I support the efforts the Government has made to date. I know that the people of New Zealand will similarly support strong humanitarian efforts to help Vanuatu reconstruct, and to help the people of Vanuatu get on with these lives. I hope that that gap cannot be too long, because life must continue and they must have the opportunity to put themselves back together, and to get their jobs, their families, and their communities back functioning again. We have the responsibility to do what we can to help them do that.

Motion agreed to.