Marcroft JennyJENNY MARCROFT (NZ First): Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. It's a pleasure to stand and take a call on this amendment bill. I'd just like to begin my contribution by acknowledging the passion from the Hon Alfred Ngaro the member who has just spoken. Unfortunately that is misplaced passion. It's passion about technicalities as opposed to passion about the people and that is what this bill and the winter energy payment are all about. It is about warming our people—so we are passionate about people on this side of the House. The Government has made a fantastic move in terms of looking after the people of New Zealand who need to have our help and assistance.The winter energy payment is really great for families particularly those who have children to warm up their homes. It is fantastic for those seniors in our community who need to ensure that during the winter months they stay warm. It will help to ensure that those 1600 people per year who have died living in cold houses—it will reduce that significantly. This is particularly targeted social assistance and that is what we are passionate about: to warm up our people because it's all about governing with heart.Now the Social Security (Winter Energy Payment) Amendment Bill amends the Social Security Act to ensure that all the clients are able to be lawfully paid the winter energy payment as the policy intended. Now although nobody actually missed out on their payments during winter last year there was that technical error in the bill which meant a few intended recipients received their payments despite the legislation technically saying that they shouldn't have. This amendment bill makes sure that these people who were always intended to receive the payment are fully covered by the legislation.The key scenario in which the drafting errors were relevant related to residential care and residential support subsidies. The winter energy payment is not paid to those who receive these subsidies as their heating's already subsidised. The drafting error however meant that some people who were not eligible for these subsidies but who did receive some other limited funding for residential care were technically outside the winter energy payment legislation. So these people still received the winter energy payment as planned but the legislation did not technically cover them and thus they were paid unlawfully but this technicality through this amendment will be fixed. It was a very small group of people: fewer than 4 percent of those who received the payment.I'd just like to acknowledge the Social Services and Community Committee for the further refinements that they've provided through the select committee process—good work there—and also note too the Minister and her speech this afternoon. The original draft of this amendment bill was a little unclear. In clause 4 the clause which inserts the new section 72(2)(d) and in the bill's original form a very limited number of people were unintentionally excluded from the winter energy payment due to those rare scenarios that have been outlined already.The winter energy payment is having a positive impact on New Zealanders. It did last year; it will this year as well and into the future. This is a very small technical fix and it should progress quickly now through the House. On that I commend this to the House.