The Herald reports that the Minister of Finance, who you would have thought should be focused on allocating scarce resources in an efficient and fair manner to help rescue those still in distress from the Cyclone, instead gave us a lecture on Climate Change today.
Robertson said "Climate Change is here, it is affecting the economic security of our country, our communities ... we have two jobs when it comes to climate change .. the first is to reduce our emissions". He said the second part of the climate change conversation was adaptation.
I'm an advocate for pricing carbon emissions to help address climate change, but even so, what a sad speech. The Finance Minister is using the cyclone to open the Climate Change debate, even as bodies are being found, people rescued and as bridges, roads & livelihoods lay buried in ruin.
Robertson is "shaping the narrative". His message is: vote Labour, or at least the Greens, for the environment in 2023 .. Labour is the best party for dealing with disasters, be they from viruses or Climate-change-induced-cyclones.
If he has long known Climate Change is upon us, why didn't he protect rural communities for the inevitable storms he talks of today? He's been in power nearly six years. Why didn't he invest in infrastructure to insulate them from wide-spread death & destruction?
Why did he instead push for those funds to be allocated for a cycle way over Auckland's Harbour and Light Rail to Auckland Airport? Why was he favoring projects in urban centers and not the regions?
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