Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
There are things that could be done immediately to help support those who have lost everything in the recent flooding and Cyclone Gabrielle, says Green Party co-leader James Shaw.
The Greens have floated a windfall profit tax to help support the cleanup.
"The Green Party has said a number of times that in this inflationary environment, there are a number of companies that are making massive, unearned windfall gains simply because of constrained supply.
"They haven't done anything additional to earn those profits."
Whether the government needed to buy homes in flood-hit areas was something that needed to be worked through at speed, he said.
"In Australia, there was a buy-out situation after their floods over there which enabled people to take their insurance money for the home but to relocate to safe ground. I do think we need to look at something like that here."
Shaw wants to table the Climate Adaptation Bill before the election but said it was unlikely to pass before the end of the year.
The bulk of the bill addresses the issue of managed retreat, relocating settlements away from vulnerable areas.
"We are going to be looking and seeing what we can do to accelerate it."
It was good the National Party had offered to support it in a bipartisan manner, he said.
National MP Maureen Pugh walked back on comments she made at Parliament on Tuesday morning about awaiting evidence that humans have contributed to climate change.
Pugh was pulled into line by the National Party leadership who said they would provide her with plenty of reading material laying out the science and the evidence.
"I don't have a lot of time for people who are stuck in climate denial and essentially adopt an anti-science position," Shaw said.
"It's clear that her leadership had had a conversation with her and she reversed her position."
Asked whether an amnesty for RSE workers who have overstayed was a good thing, Shaw said climate change was displacing more and more people both here and in the Pacific.
"I think having an immigration system that treats people with dignity and takes account of those circumstances would be no bad thing at all."
Shaw said there were thousands of people who lost everything in Cyclone Gabrielle and the top priority now has to be to make sure they have everything they need.
