Wall Louisa: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWall Louisa: General Debate[Sitting date: 26 August 2015. Volume:708;Page:6177. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]LOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Kia ora Mr Speaker. I want to acknowledge the Speaker’s Science Forum on housing and health which I attended on 12 August. The focus of this health and housing forum which Dr Jian Yang actually introduced was to look at housing and how it contributes to the health and well-being of New Zealanders. I would like to take this opportunity to thank Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman who was one of the presenters on that evening. What Professor Howden-Chapman highlighted was that in New Zealand we have 1600 people die every year from preventable illnesses because they are living in cold wet damp and inefficiently heated homes. So for the people out there over the last couple of days we have been debating the health and safety legislation; 100 people die every year in work-related accidents. Well actually 1600 people are dying every year because they live in cold damp houses.The interesting thing about Professor Howden-Chapman’s analysis was that in fact 960 children are dying every year in cold damp houses that are inefficiently heated. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Unicef and the Child Poverty Action Group which have just launched an initiative wanting to focus on this issue of warrants of fitness. In New Zealand unfortunately 305000 children are living in poverty. Of those 305000 children living in poverty 213500 children live in rental accommodation. So the relevance to New Zealand of a warrant of fitness piece of legislation is immense I would have thought as 61000 of our children live in State houses and 252500 live in rental accommodation with no warrant of fitness.So what does that actually mean? What does that translate to? Well in addition to the 960-odd children who are dying every year actually we have 40000 children who are hospitalised with preventable illnesses. I actually think that is incredibly profound and New Zealanders thought it was incredibly profound when in July this year a coroner Brandt Shortland actually determined that Emma-Lita Bourne a young toddler living in a home—and I want to quote some of the things that were said in the coroner’s report. In winter last year this young girl died and she was living in a home where there were buckets under a leak in the hallway ceiling. There was an unused heater in the family home because they could not afford to turn it on because electricity was too expensive and she lived in a home where one of her older siblings had rheumatic fever. There was outrage by New Zealanders and the media interest has been incredibly intense because a coroner had the audacity—I do not call it “audacity”; I actually call it “leadership”—to put some blame where that blame should be attributed. This young girl Emma-Lita Bourne should not have died.Now we have a scenario where Professor Philippa Howden-Chapman an esteemed public health academic and specialist someone who has dedicated her whole entire life to the housing sector has told Parliament that 1600 people—and of those 960 are children—are dying every year because they live in cold damp wet houses with inefficient heating. When I think about the whole history of housing provision in New Zealand I do have to go back to the 1950s. In the 1950s we built 30000 houses. The waiting list back then was 45000—45000 New Zealanders went on the waiting list. They wanted a State home. What did National do when it got in? Well actually it raised the rents. It wanted to make this programme unattractive.What we know today is that there are 69000 Housing New Zealand houses technically but only 64000 are available. In the lifetime of the houses in New Zealand we have sold 31000. They are in private hands but today we have 4541 priority A and B families wanting a home. These people are deemed at risk with a severe and persistent housing need that must be addressed immediately. So my question to the Government is: are you going to sell 10000 houses like you say by 2017—that has been your stated objective—when we have got that much need? It makes absolutely no sense. Actually this Government needs to represent all New Zealanders and our most vulnerable New Zealanders. What this proves is that it does not care. Thank you.The debate having concluded the motion lapsed.