O'Connor GregGREG O'CONNOR (Labour—Ōhāriu): Members opposite are not a bad bunch of blokes and women. I get on pretty well with most of them but they do exist in an irony-free and a luxury zone—irony free.Tonight before this bill we passed some very significant legislation. Its significance its magnificence was in the fact that it went through this House with the compliance—with the agreement—of virtually the whole House. I think most of us will look back on that as one of the most significant pieces of legislation we were fortunate enough to be involved in. Yet here we are not 15 minutes later being harangued for bringing some legislation to this House which actually to those who it is going to affect is equally important.Who is it going to affect? It is going to affect some of the 1600 people who will die this year in all of our electorates—that comes down to 22.5 people per electorate—as a result of the cold—the cold.As I say as well as being an irony-free zone over there they're also a luxury zone because imagine having to debate—having to oppose—this. OK their KPIs across the way are around opposing. They have to make the speeches. They're measured on how many negative texts and how many negative Facebook and other social media posts they put out. But imagine the bad luck to have to do that at this time of the year. Imagine the bad luck of having to do this just as daylight saving finishes—that harbinger of winter; just as the godwits start heading towards Siberia on that long migration that we know not how; just as our children head out to do their winter sports and we get ready with our big coats to stand there; just as some people start to get the ski equipment out; while at the same time others sit there pondering as to how they are going to get through this winter. Are they going to be one of those 1600 people?It's very real. I refer to a work there according to Philippa Howden-Chapman. She's a professor of public health at the University of Otago. We know that being cold has an impact on older people's circulation in particular because the blood gets more"—is it viscous?—"viscous and is more likely to form plaques and people are more likely to have atrial fibrillation or stroke and malfunctioning of their heart." That's what we're actually talking about. That's what happens when you do get cold.There was another article actually a Listener article—Arthur Grimes a senior fellow at Motu economics and former chairman of the Reserve Bank—talking about the risk of circulatory problems. For warming houses this is where you get the biggest bang for your buck when it comes to insulation. They might not have heart disease now but they may get it later. I would say that as a group they should be targeted. So these are the people that are going to be affected. This is how real it is.So again I go back to the Opposition. Talking about unicorns—how ironic. I mean if you're going to bring something up you really should just do something as simple as googling just to find out what unicorns were renowned for. What they did was they had the power to render poisoned water potable. Well that's pretty much what we're doing here. We're making sure that our people—it's very metaphorical but that potability is actually people's ability to get through the winter. But it doesn't end there. This unicorn which was hailed by members of the Opposition it heals sickness and has magical powers and so does legislation for some of our older citizens some of those people who are wondering how they are going to get through this winter. The unicorn might be not a bad sort of analogy because this will help to heal their sickness and have some magical powers to get them through the winter.As the last speaker on this bill I just go back to some of the comments. This is not "a terrible mistake". I heard one of the—I can't remember who it was; there were so many negative comments made across the House. This is not a terrible mistake to pass this legislation. This is something that is actually a very very good thing to do and—for those individuals who will be affected—as good as the previous legislation we passed tonight.More impact—the other comment that was made: "Good processes don't keep people warm." Well no they don't. Good processes aren't what keep people warm. It's actually good heating—good heating that you can afford.I'd just like in commending this bill to this House to say that not only was the original intent of the legislation to give our older and more vulnerable people the opportunity to survive and not become one of those 1600 this winter a very very good thing to do but passing this legislation which came from necessity came from a drafting error to do that at this time at the start of winter is actually a very very good thing to do. Therefore I commend this bill to the House."