Member for Mangere Sua Wiliam Sio said today Jacinda Adern’s speech at the United Nations had made him feel proud.
“I’ve never felt so proud to be a Pacific person from Aotearoa-New Zealand than to see our Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern profiling on the world stage issues that resonate so strongly with me, my family and my local community,” Sio said.
“She is a true ambassador for the kind of country and world we all aspire for. Well done Prime Minister.
“Your nation is beaming with pride at how you’ve represented us on the world stage.”
The Prime Minister told the UN General Assembly people needed to learn to work together to combat a range of “wicked problems” that confronted the region and the world.
She urged governments to abandon “isolationism, protectionism and racism” and work instead with kindness and collectivism to combat those problems.
The Prime Minister described New Zealand as “a remote nation at the bottom of the South Pacific.”
She said rising sea levels presented the single biggest threat to the region.
“For those who live in the South Pacific, the impacts of climate change are not academic, or even arguable,” she said.
“They are watching the sea levels rise, the extreme weather events increase, and the impact on their water supply and food crops.”
The Prime Minister said nations like Tuvalu, the Marshall Islands and Kiribati would suffer the full force of global warning.
She said New Zealand’s Pacific neighbours could not opt out of climate change so New Zealand could not opt out of taking action.
Hon. Sio, who is also Minister for Pacific Peoples, has travelled in the Pacific to investigate the impact of climate change.
At this year’s climate change conference in Wellington he called for New Zealand to prepare for the possibility of climate change which induced migration from the Pacific islands.
The main points
- Member for Mangere Sua Wiliam Sio said today Jacinda Adern’s speech at the United Nations had made him feel proud.
- The Prime Minister urged governments to abandon “isolationism, protectionism and racism” and work instead with kindness and collectivism to combat those problems.
- “She is a true ambassador for the kind of country and world we all aspire for,” Sio said.
For more information
PM Jacinda Ardern addresses the United Nations, reveals where NZ stands on ‘two world views’
Climate change demands plan for emergency we hope won’t happen says Sio.
