Green MP Chlöe Swarbrick and ACT deputy leader Brooke van Velden joined Breakfast to discuss climate change and the response to Cyclone Gabrielle this morning.
Asked if the Government is doing enough for communities hit by Cyclone Gabrielle, van Velden said "Civil Defence payments are a very good short-term measure", but she thinks infrastructure and mitigation against "climate change problems" should be the long-term focus.
"When I look ahead, I don't want to see us having a conversation about 'well everything's to do with climate change and it means we have to mitigate and cut farmers' number of cows, and we have to subsidise Tesla owners against ute owners'.
"I think we need to look at, how do we actually adapt to climate change?
"That's through more money being spent on good infrastructure," she said.
In response, Swarbrick said "this isn't a recovery and rebuilding moment".
"This is what we mean when we're talking about the climate emergency.
"If we continue to put these fossil fuels, these climate-changing emissions into our atmosphere, these are precisely the kinds of extreme weather events that we can continue to expect will increase in their extremity," she said.
"I agree with at least the high-level rhetoric that we're hearing from [van Velden] there with regard to the need to adapt, but genuine climate adaptation... is actually also meaningful climate mitigation."
Swarbrick pointed to transport in particular as an area that requires focus moving forward, as well as inequality.
"It is really expensive to be poor and if you can't afford insurance in the first place, then you are in an impossible situation when you lose absolutely everything," she said.
Cyclone response 'can't be blanket' - ACT
Van Velden added that community workers are "doing the bulk of the work" in the cyclone's wake.
"Where the Government does need to step in of course, could be where you've had orchardists who have lost nearly everything.
"But of course, we have to be very sensible with that approach, it can't be blanket," she said.
"There's a lot of orchards that also haven't been affected.
"There needs to be a policy there about looking at what the actual harm for each individual was and how that will affect their business."
'Radical transformation' needed - Greens
Swarbrick said she had spent five years "trying to figure out how to calmly and rationally talk about this climate emergency".
"We need radical transformation, because actually, transformation is inevitable.
"Whether it happens to us by virtue of the rapidly changing climate... or we make that economic transformation to ensure that everybody has what they need to survive and that we are resilient to the changing weather," she said.
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