Dyson RuthHon RUTH DYSON (Labour—Port Hills): If only we could connect that Minister the Minister for Building and Construction to every rental property in New Zealand because in the last 10 minutes he has expelled enough hot air to keep every single family in New Zealand in a rental property warm—every single family. It is a shame that we could not then add additional connections to the people who are sleeping in garages and who are sleeping in cars because this winter the Hon Nick Smith they are cold as a result of your inaction to address housing issues for New Zealanders.When I was a child I knew that if we worked hard and saved hard as adults we would be able to afford to buy a house. It would not be a flash house. It might be a house you had to do up but it would be a house that you would turn into a home and you would put a foot and a stake in your community. We had security as we got older and we were able to raise children as part of that community as well. This is the first Government that I have known in my lifetime that is leaving the next generation worse off than we were left. Which member of Parliament comes to this House to make the lives of their children and their grandchildren worse? That is the one legacy that John Key and Bill English will have when they are turfed out of this place—the memory of John Key and the reality of Bill English—in just over 60 days. I cannot wait till 23 September when the vision and the passion and common sense of Andrew Little as demonstrated in this bill will be able to be put into reality with legislation across many portfolios.It is 2017 and the National Government still says it is acceptable for children in our country to live in cold damp homes—cold damp homes that their parents can hardly afford to rent. Well on this side of the House—and thank you also to the support of Peter Dunne from United Future—we say it is unacceptable. Children are dying in our country from diseases that could be prevented. How can that be right Mr Doocey? How can that be right Barbara Kuriger? How can it be right that we have children going into hospital and dying from conditions that are preventable—preventable by actions that are delivered by this bill? It is not acceptable and your names will be alongside opposing this bill for ever. You will put your name alongside opposition to this bill because of some petty party politics instead of thinking about how important our children and our elderly particularly are—people who are vulnerable when they are living in cold damp houses.At the Government Administration Committee we heard a lot of submissions. They were all supportive. I want to say to Kris Faafoi that some secondary students who came from his electorate of Mana in support of this bill were some of the most impressive that I have ever seen at a select committee. They were actually from a high-income area—they told us that. Then they said: We're here to support this bill—not for ourselves. We live in warm dry houses but we know people who live 10 minutes down the road who are in a low-income area and who are in cold damp houses and we want them to live in warm dry houses like we do." That is the spirit of New Zealanders that I love so much—that if we are doing all right we want other people to do all right as well. We do not want to see people who are doing poorly. Children who get sick children who end up having medical treatment or being in hospital kids who miss school because they are sick—all these things affect their outcomes as adults and here is a chance to really make a difference. Here is a chance to make a positive contribution not just to the literal lives today of those children but to their future. We can make it better for them.So we heard the submissions and a lot of people gave us very constructive amendments to this bill. The select committee originally agreed that we would change the bill; we would put in those amendments. We agreed unanimously that we would change those amendments and then on the very last day the National members said: "No we're not going to do that." Mr Doocey will recall my surprise at the changed position. I usually take a member at her or his word when they give a commitment; I am learning not to do that so often now with National Party MPs. It is disappointing because even if you disagree you should be able to take people at their word in my view. So we ended up writing the amendments and putting them separately. We have got returned to this House a bill with amendments prepared that improve the bill and that could make a difference.Nick Smith said this will take us back in time. When Nick Smith introduced the "new" insulation standards he lowered the standard of insulation required in New Zealand homes to 1970s standards. He has got a bit of a pattern in this regard. It is like when he changed the water quality standards to say that we are now going to have swimmable water but the new standard is wadeable and it applies only to 15 percent of the waterways in our country. So 15 percent of 100 percent is going to be of lower quality than we have ever had in water in New Zealand before in the same way as the insulation standards currently required are lower than we have ever had in New Zealand before.This bill is not the answer to all our housing problems nor was it ever intended to be. Andrew Little made that very clear when he introduced this legislation. This goes alongside other measures to fix the housing issue—for example stopping overseas residents buying New Zealand homes. Let us house New Zealanders first.Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Stick to the bill.Hon RUTH DYSON: Instead of making money out of houses—Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER: Come back to the bill.Hon RUTH DYSON: —we should be making homes out of houses. It goes alongside the winter energy payment so that we would give people on superannuation and on benefits additional cash to help them pay for their higher power bill in winter. Thirty thousand people signed an open letter in support of Andrew Little's bill which we are debating now—30000 people. That is in addition to the 85 submissions overwhelmingly in support that we had at the select committee. New Zealanders want this change—not only New Zealanders who live in cold damp houses but New Zealanders like the secondary school students I mentioned earlier who came to our select committee so strongly supportive of this bill not for themselves but for other secondary school students who live down the road.I just want to ask the National Party members: what is wrong with trying to give all New Zealanders an opportunity to live in a warm dry home? We know the health outcomes are improved dramatically if that is the situation they live in. We know as a result of that that our health bill is lower. We know as a result of that that their overall health outcomes will be better. If you get rheumatic fever as a child you are likely to end up with a heart murmur you are likely to have atrial fibrillation as a young adult and that could affect you negatively for your entire life. Why would we want to do that? Why would we not want to do every single thing we can to make healthier homes for people so that the children and the elderly particularly who live in those homes have healthier outcomes? I do not understand how the National Party members and ACT can say "We will reject this." having heard from the select committee that we have made all these amendments after listening to the submitters. We made the bill better. The vision in it was good the passion behind it was good the common-sense approach to saying "If you've got a cold damp house how do we make it warmer and drier?"—the common-sense approach was excellent. We have made a very good bill even better.But the National Party members' petty political point-scoring means that children in New Zealand will die because they are living in cold damp houses. I do not understand why any member would come to Parliament to make the lives of children worse than our lives were. That is what the opposition to this bill is doing. We have a chance to give people better health outcomes better education outcomes better employment outcomes. This is the time to do it. Make a stand against the petty political point-scoring of your party Mr Doocey. Make a stand for young children in New Zealand. Say that you want them to all live in a warm dry home in the same way as our families do. This is the opportunity. We can improve it further in the Committee stage but we have to pass it at this stage."