Williams Poto; Dean JacquiThe CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): I call the Hon Jacqui Dean. Hon JACQUI DEAN (National—Waitaki): Oh good choice Madam Chair. Thank you very much. I'd like my contribution to follow on from my colleagues who have raised very real issues around the winter energy payment. I'm glad the Minister in the chair the Hon Stuart Nash is still here. I just want to clarify firstly something that he said and I am interested in his answer. In his intervention three or four speeches ago he noted that the payment would—the heat pump would go on in about May and the energy payment would last for six months. So I would just like the Minister to take a call in due course to confirm whether it is—in his words—six months or whether or not it is the 22 weeks as is noted in the bill itself. We need some clarification around that because I think the Minister by saying six months just adds to the confusion that people who are eligible which is most people because it is an untargeted benefit—most people who are on a super payment or are on a benefit payment to which they're entitled. So I'd like clarification on that for those people. I'd like also to question—and in the spirit of wanting to help the new Government craft a decent piece of legislation I'd also like to suggest a slight change that in my humble view will make this payment more useful to those people to whom it applies and that is by way of my amendment which seeks to replace all references to winter" with "eligible". The reason I'm suggesting taking "winter" out and inserting "eligible" in its place is to propose that in places like say Alexandra where winter temperatures indeed drop to quite low levels—well as night follows day and as summer follows winter in the summer it gets piercingly hot. So the temperature can rise to the mid - 30 degrees Celsius or the high 30s on day after day after day and I'm sure I've got colleagues on my side who represent different parts of New Zealand who will also wish to comment on this amendment that I have introduced and on the benefits and the improvements I hope to make to this payment by way of it. So let's think about somebody on national super in Alexandra. It's a fiercely hot summer afternoon in early February and it will probably continue that way with high temperatures all the way through till around April and to when winter comes and then suddenly it's cold. If you think about a frail elderly person in a small council flat or in a small home it gets so hot and just as the cold has a bad impact on older folks' health so does the heat. So why then—and I'd really like an answer here from the Minister on behalf of his Government—does this winter energy payment relate only to winter? What is it about being cold that is so much more detrimental to health than overheating? I can assure the Minister in places like Alexandra in places like Northland and in places like Gisborne—all around New Zealand—older folk and people on benefits suffer in the heat as much as they do in the cold. I don't accept that winter power bills are any greater than summer power bills in those parts of New Zealand because I know for a fact that when the weather does climb above 35 degrees the heat pumps go on and the fans go on. They are burning day and night and day and night and the power bills go through the roof. So that is my suggestion. That is my suggestion to the committee. I know that there are many many of my colleagues who have read this amendment and will take the opportunity to express their concerns around their part of New Zealand and I know the committee needs to hear these concerns. I don't think a winter energy payment is good enough. I think it needs to be taken out and replaced with an energy pay-out that satisfies the needs of those people whom it seeks to assist and I'd like to see that happen by way of my amendment. The CHAIRPERSON (Poto Williams): I call the honourable—oh I'm so sorry. I'll call the Hon Stuart Nash."