Climate Change Minister James Shaw says New Zealand has to 'get used to the idea” of regular cyclone seasons, similar to those seen in the Pacific islands.

The Green Party co-leader made the comments during a public meeting on climate change held in Tauranga, while taking questions from residents on a range of topics.

Speaking at the meeting, Shaw says the climate in the north of Aotearoa is changing from 'sub-tropical to tropical”.

'What this means is we now also have a cyclone season. Those cyclones which constantly hit the Pacific islands – actually, that's us now.”

Shaw adds the expanding temperature bands will 'continue to move down the country”.

'The chair of the Climate Change commission Rodd Carr says the temperate bands around the world are changing so much, it's like his house in Christchurch is on wheels and moving 50km north every year.

'The country is only 1000km long, so his house will feel like it's in Auckland in the near distant future.”

Shaw says countries like the Cook Islands can spend up to 25 per cent of their annual budget on climate related costs, which mostly boil down to cyclone damage.

'Imagine taking 25 per cent out of the health budget, out of superannuation, out of social welfare and out of education, it's a huge drag on everything. It means you can never get ahead.”

On economic concerns facing the country, Shaw says 'the worst thing” New Zealand could do is stop focusing on climate change prevention.

'There's a whole lot of things Finance Minister Grant Robertson wanted to do but couldn't, because we're spending billions of dollars on repairing half the country.”

Shaw says the best way to deal with climate change is to introduce preventative measures, rather than to only focus on recovery from natural disasters when they happen.

'It's like bailing water during a flood without fixing the hole where it is coming from. What this means is all you're going to be doing is bailing water.”

To tax or not to tax

One resident tells Shaw he felt the party's proposal to introduce a 2.5 per cent wealth tax on assets worth more than $4 million for couples and $2 million for individuals was 'most unfair”.

'Are you going to tax us again at our age of life after we've worked so hard all of our life, and paid all of our taxes?” asks the resident.

Shaw responds by saying under the proposed wealth tax, the first $4 million of assets for couples are 'tax free”, and working similarly to income tax, 'only the portion worth over $4 million” is taxed 2.5 per cent.

'There's only about 0.7 per cent of the population who own $4 million worth of assets with no debt against them in the country. It is a very small group of people, but it does mean there will be an increased tax burden for those people.

'We are the only country in the entire OECD that does not have some form of capital gains tax, and under [the proposed wealth tax], around 95 per cent of people will see their income tax reduced.

"The net benefit of [the wealth tax] is we will be able to eliminate poverty, and that's the thing I'd ask you to focus on, and ask yourself if it's worth it. I would argue it is.”