Transcript
AUPITO WILLIAM SIO: No doubt the instructions that I've asked the Ministry to come back with will include also the desire to at various stages add on the languages of other smaller island groupings. But the focus on this is about protecting and preserving the languages, about legislating so that we officially recognise these languages as official community languages.
DOMINIC GODFREY: How does this fit with New Zealand's Treaty of Waitangi obligations?
AWS: So the model that I've considered is the model out of Singapore where at the higher level you've got your official national languages, of which Te Reo Maori and Sign Language are all at a higher status whereas what we're talking about here is community languages. Languages being used by our communities who call New Zealand home.
DG: So, worst case scenario: climate change impact speeds up. At-risk nations like Kiribati and Tuvalu, their people need to leave. These languages are at-risk even more so. New Zealand becomes one of the last places on Earth where they're spoken. How would we speed up the value of those languages?
AWS: Well I think we've got to lay that strong foundation and I've asked my officials to come back to me with how we progress it. We need to look at ways of enhancing it in our compulsory education system.
DG: And that brings us on to policy area number two: Immigration, Settlement & Pacific Climate Change. You specifically mention both Tuvalu and Kiribati as being at-risk here to displacement, for the possibility of climate change refugees. I know the prime minister of Tuvalu Enele Sopoaga does not like his people being referred to as climate change refugees and he sees that as rather defeatist.
AWS: Mmm, yes. What I stressed in that policy is, it's about people who have been displaced from their homes as a direct consequence of climate change and global warming. And it's about talking through a Pacific immigration plan which recognises this and that these people, through no fault of their own, will end up being either forced to leave their homes or we've got to provide options for mobility. And the point that you've made there with prime minister Enele, absolutely! This is about us providing an emergency plan. An emergency plan where we don't want the emergency to occur but nonetheless we've also got to be realistic about it and so we're not simply going to impose this plan on the Pacific. We've got to engage with the Pacific Island nations and certainly I'm looking to be able to set up a meeting to be able to discuss that further with prime minister Enele.
DG: One of the things he's tried to table before at the Pacific Island Forum and at the last meeting again, was climate change insurance and yet he seems to be preaching to closed ears there. What is your feeling on this? Have you given it any consideration?
AWS: Yes, it's an issue we discussed inside parliament in a bipartisan approach with the committee called GLOBE (the New Zealand chapter of the Global Legislators Organisation for a Balanced Environment). It is one of those areas where we've got to ask our officials to do more work on and look at the models that are in existence today. Because the reality is, whilst we've got to put this Pacific immigration plan in place that recognises displaced peoples as a result of climate change and global warming, we've also got to ensure that we support the island governments to be fighting for their homes.
