Curran ClareHon CLARE CURRAN (Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media): Thank you Mr Speaker. This is just the beginning. This is a compassionate Government that is making meaningful change; making meaningful difference to make people's lives better. That is an Opposition that is desperate; that is tilting at windmills. This is a Government that has delivered a transformational Families Package which follows a foundational Budget which will build a stronger economy and restore critical public services. This is a Government that is doing its job. This is a Government that is doing the right thing.On the Prime Minister's Facebook page this week following the transformational Families Package comments from the members of the public: Leading by decency." "Wow!" "Thank you it'll make a huge difference to families including ours." "Finally a Government that cares." and "So impressed. Thank you for helping us out Jacinda. Much love from my family of three kids five pets and a hard-working fiancé while I look after the home."This is a Government that cares about people. It will deliver for parents with the Best Start payment; for children by increasing the rate of the orphans benefit unsupported child's benefit and foster care allowance; students with the increases in accommodation allowances; superannuitants with the costs of heating their homes over winter with the winter energy payment. And it will be done while taking account of our ambitious programme which will meet Budget responsibility rules.What does the Opposition say? Simon Bridges says he's for the Families Package but also that he opposes it. He criticises the main elements but won't commit to removing them. He says it's not targeted enough; he also says it's targeted to only a few people. The National Party also doesn't support the universal winter energy payment but does support universal superannuation payments. They need to say what they actually stand for.I want to refer back to why it is so important that we have this winter energy payment. I want to refer back to 2011—seven years ago—when a fundamentally important piece of research was released out of the University of Victoria and the University of Otago which revealed that a quarter of New Zealand households were estimated to be in fuel poverty. They said "New Zealand has a poor history of housing regulation so existing houses are often poorly insulated and rental properties are not required to have insulation or heating. Average indoor temperatures are cold by international standards and occupants regularly report they are cold because they can't afford to heat their houses. Fuel poverty is thought to be a factor in New Zealand's high rate of excess winter mortality—16 percent about 1600 deaths a year—and excess winter hospitalisations at 8 percent." What shame that was. That was seven years ago. Now making money available for insulation is absolutely important but addressing the issue of fuel poverty—people not being able to afford to heat their homes—is absolutely critical. That's what this winter energy payment delivers.I've lost count of the homes I've visited where the elderly stay in bed until the afternoon where children are admitted to hospital every single year because there are holes in the walls because there are gaps between the windows and the outside where there's mould on the walls and where people air their homes. They air their homes and there's still black mould on the walls. That is why the winter energy payment of $450 for singles and $700 for couples is so critical to begin to address these issues—to keep those 40000 children that are admitted to hospital every year out of hospital. This is just the beginning: a warrant of fitness for rental housing more State housing more affordable housing an increase in the accommodation supplement which will benefit 135000 households and the urban renewal of poor-quality housing. This is a compassionate determined Government that knows what it stands for."