Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
Hipkins Chris: Questions for Oral Answer — Questions to Ministers 
[Volume:657;Page:6631] 
9.  
CHRIS HIPKINS (Labour—Rimutaka) 
 to the  
Minister of Energy and Resources 
: What criteria will be used to determine which households could receive free home insulation? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE (Minister of Energy and Resources) 
: 
 As I reported to the House yesterday in just 2 months of the scheme 60 percent of the households receiving assistance have been occupied by community services cardholders and in most cases they will have paid nothing for that insulation due to the third-party funding that has been attracted by the scheme. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Was Dr Sharples correct when he said that as part of the deal with the Maori Party to support the changes to the emissions trading scheme the Government would provide free home insulation to 2000 Maori households? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I think that is a very very loose and somewhat interpretive recycle of what Dr Sharples— 
Chris Hipkins 
: It was in the papers. 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: We all know that one does not believe everything one reads in the papers. I tell the member that Dr Sharples has raised an issue and we are discussing that matter with him. In any event well over 2000 Maori households will be advantaged by this scheme over its lifetime—well over. 
Dr Cam Calder 
: Has the Minister received any reports on the success of the Warm Up New Zealand: Heat Smart scheme; if so what do those reports say? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Yes. As I advised the House yesterday in just 8 weeks more than 8000 houses have received retrofits under the scheme. This figure compares with 9000 that were done under the previous Labour Government in the entire 2007 year and the 11000 done by the previous Labour Government in the 2008 year. At the moment we are on track to beat those numbers some time during the next month. 
Chris Hipkins 
: If Dr Sharples is incorrect was Tariana Turia correct when she said that the Maori Party had secured free insulation for all low-income households as part of the Maori Party’s deal to support the proposed changes to the emissions trading scheme? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: I am struggling a little to work out why the Labour Party finds it so difficult to accept that the National Government with the Maori Party coalition arrangements and the ACT Party coalition arrangements is providing an opportunity for community services cardholders—low-income New Zealanders—to access free insulation. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Does the Minister think it is fair to prioritise free home insulation for households in Northland and the East Coast—some of the warmest places in New Zealand—while low-income households in places like Wellington Invercargill Dunedin and Christchurch will miss out on free home insulation? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: The member leaps to a conclusion that on the statistics that I have in front of me is quite unreasonable. Firstly Canterbury had the largest uptake of the scheme during the last 2 months—the only 2 months the scheme has operated—at 22 percent. Other areas in the South Island have been similarly quick to accept the scheme. I want to know why the member thinks it is OK for poor people to be cold in those parts of New Zealand. 
Chris Hipkins 
: Will there be any new funding for home insulation as part of the deal with the Maori Party to support the emissions trading scheme or does the scheme just bring forward spending of the $323 million announced in the Budget therefore not increasing the overall number of households receiving insulation under the Government’s scheme? 
Hon GERRY BROWNLEE 
: Negotiations are continuing.