Salesa Jenny: General DebateText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeSalesa Jenny: General Debate[Sitting date: 17 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4497. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]JENNY SALESA (Labour—Manukau East): Talofa lava Mr Assistant Speaker. First of all I would like to honour and acknowledge Jerry Collins who had his funeral in Porirua earlier on this morning. I and a number of Labour MPs were there to celebrate his life. Manuia Iou Malaga Jerry.This Government has failed to deliver on the brighter future that it promised us. Seven years ago it promised us that it would deliver a Budget surplus; we have still not seen that. It has lost its way and it is stumbling from one disaster to another. It is now dealing with incompetence—for instance how it is dealing with the Tāmaki Collective and Ngāti Whātua over Crown land in Auckland and how it is dealing with Relationships Aotearoa. And one of my very own constituents 2-year-old Emma-Lita Bourne—may she rest in peace—died last year due in part to the incompetence of this Government. There are many examples of where this Government has lost its way and of where it fails to prioritise what is actually important—that is New Zealand children and their families.This Government has spent $11 million on sheep for a businessman in Saudi Arabia. It has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment signs on a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment rock and we heard today on a Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment desk. The Government has wasted $26 million on the flag referendum which a lot of people tell us they do not really want. This Government has not even passed health and safety legislation following the deaths of 29 New Zealanders at Pike River. Then there is the housing crisis which brings me to where I would like to focus today which is on the tragic death of 2-year-old Emma-Lita Bourne.In his report the coroner found that Emma-Lita Bourne’s death in Ōtara was partly a result of the cold damp mouldy State house that she lived in. This is a damning indictment on this Government. The State house did not even have any carpets. It was not insulated. And the State departments that the family dealt with were told many many times of the ill health that this toddler was suffering from as well as that of one of her siblings who was suffering from rheumatic fever. Mr English stated that Housing New Zealand insulates all of its properties where practicable. I think that the Government needs to explain to the Bourne family the reasons why it was not practicable to insulate the State house that the Bourne family lived in and why it was not practicable to move the family. They asked many times to be moved from this State house to another house that would have been fit for them to live in. Why was it not practicable to move them until after the tragic death of this child?I went door-knocking during the adjournmentlast week including along the particular street in Ōtara where Emma-Lita Bourne lived. I tell you it breaks my heart to see some of these State houses and the conditions that some of these families are living instill. Some of their houses are not insulated. It is actually colder inside the houses than outside the houses. I spoke with some of the neighbours who lived next to Emma-Lita Bourne who actually recalled seeing this toddler and how she used to play on the streets and at the public park right next door to her house. Only a few days after Emma-Lita Bourne’s death we were also informed of another father of six who lived in Papakura and his death was also according to the coroner’s report because of the incompetence of this Government and the condition of the State house that he lived in.I would like actually to point to the quote from the Hon Nick Smith when he was interviewed on TV3 on Paul Henry’s programme. Nick Smith is quoted after the death of Emma-Lita Bourne as saying: “People dying from pneumonia in winter is not new. People have got unwell during winter died from pneumonia and other illnesses for a very very long time”. This is a very very insensitive quote right after a death. The tragic death of Ōtara’s Emma-Lita Bourne as well as that of the father of six Mr Tovo is indeed the fault of this Government and the Government has a moral obligation to do everythingthat it can to stop its houses from contributing to the deaths of its tenants. Thank you.