Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): Tēnā koe Madam Assistant Speaker. It's with pleasure I rise to support this minor technical piece of legislation that will help ensure that people that got money to keep their houses warm over last winter are able to keep that money that they used and ensure that people this winter who are—from the intent of the legislation—entitled to be able to turn on their heaters will be able to do so. That feels like a nice thing to support I think particularly now as it's starting to get cold outside. I had the fire on last weekend. I was thinking about this legislation and thinking about the Opposition's position in relation to it. Actually I went through two bags of firewood in one day which I think was about 40 bucks' worth of firewood—in one day. I was just thinking about all the people struggling to keep themselves and their kids warm. Hon Aupito William Sio: They don't care. JAN LOGIE: As my colleague points out it doesn't seem as if the Opposition cares about those people but on this side of the House I'm pleased to say that we do. There are a few points that have been raised by the Opposition in particular that I do just want to quickly address. I don't expect my speech is going to take the full time because actually this is quite a simple correction to make sure that the intent of the legislation is able to be enacted. But people have been raising that the Government's being lax and that they shouldn't make mistakes and members of the Opposition have been quite exercised about that. But I've been here a few years now and the number of times I've been in Opposition speaking to legislation from the previous Government and correcting drafting errors—I don't know how many times but there were quite a few. I would predict that in the future I will stand on this side correcting drafting errors from the previous Government's legislation. I see that coming. Hon Damien O'Connor: Oh they stuffed up a hell of a lot. JAN LOGIE: They did stuff up a lot and part of it is just that drafting is difficult and technical errors happen. So it's not something to take the moral high ground over because we've all been there and we will all be there at some stage. Also the point has been made challenging the retrospectivity of this and the Greens often raised concerns about retrospective legislation. As a general rule legislation should not be retrospective when you're holding people to a standard of law at a time when that was not law. That's unreasonable to do. However when the intent of the legislation was not realised by the drafting of the bill I don't think the conceptual framework of the opposition to retrospectivity applies because actually it's just that the legislation didn't reflect the intent. We're not taking anything away from people or judging people on an unfair standard; we're just giving them what we wanted them to have. So I'm all good with giving people what we wanted them to have and particularly when it comes to being able to keep themselves warm. That seems OK to me particularly when we know that there are I think 1600 excess deaths from the cold and damp houses in this country every year. That's appalling and in this debate I think we need to remember that.Another point that's been made from the Opposition is where they've raised the idea that there's potentially a group of up to 400 people who will get this winter energy payment who may already be having their costs covered in other ways. So there's a suggestion that this is double-dipping. But I haven't heard anybody speak about who those people actually are and my understanding is they are people who are likely to be in rest homes who are moving into or out of the hospital section of that rest home. This is the group of people that the National Party wants us to be going through and cutting entitlements to make sure that they don't get a cent extra to be able to keep their heating on when they get out of the hospital.Hon Member: Makariri.JAN LOGIE: Makariri. It's just a meanness and a meanness that they haven't been upfront about in this debate—Gareth Hughes: And uneconomic.JAN LOGIE: And uneconomic as my colleague points out because actually the cost of being that mean would be more expensive than the money being paid out. So it's not that this side of the House is being loose with the money; it's actually that we want people to be warm. We are being compassionate for people going in and out of hospitals and we're being efficient with the money. It doesn't seem kind of very good grounds to be opposing those principles.I do just want to point out that the member of the Opposition also brought unicorns into the debate rather confusingly. I did struggle and there was a suggestion that maybe they were unicorns and going extinct. The member mentioned that actually no they're not unicorns because they have more than one horn. So now I'm a little confused and going Are they bulls are they goats are they stags or are they naming themselves as devils?" because really I just think they shouldn't be quite that harsh on themselves. I may have trouble with their contributions in this debate and their policies but I wouldn't go so far as to call them devils. But if they're going to call themselves that then far be it from me. But really this is a very simple piece of legislation to ensure that everyone who is meant to be able to get the money to be able to ensure they can keep their heater on and pay for their firewood this winter if they have a fire like me are able to do so and we are proud to support that."