Craig LizDr LIZ CRAIG (Labour): Every so often in the House we get to debate some bills which remind me why I got into politics. I think this is one of those bills—but I'm not talking about the original bill; I'm talking about Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 25 because the original bill under the masquerade of a policy-neutral rewrite sought to entrench the previous Government's social investment approach into legislation. But what the SOP has done is it's removed those changes to the framing that would have impacted thousands of New Zealanders.What I want to do is talk about Part 2 which is what we're talking about today but focus on Subpart 9A inserted by the SOP Winter energy payment". This is actually something that is new to the bill because it only got passed into legislation just before Christmas last year. The first payments are going to be starting on 1 July this year so that's why it's new—it's putting the legislation all together in the one place.Clause 65A just talks about what the purpose of the winter energy payment is: it's to provide financial assistance to help people meet their household heating costs during winter. Clause 65B defines "winter period" as a 22-week period starting on 1 May. For me living in the far South that's actually a bit of an underwhelming definition but that's what the bill says. Clause 65C talks about eligibility: those receiving the main benefit New Zealand superannuation or a veterans pension. These are the most low-income families and households in New Zealand that are going to benefit from this payment.Where I live in the far South this is going to make a huge difference to people's lives because the winter energy costs are huge amounts of people's everyday income. When I first moved to Dunedin over a decade ago we moved into just a big old rental. Our first winter was absolutely freezing so we shut ourselves in the bedrooms and had column oil heaters on. We were scared to move from room to room because the ambient temperature was about 2 to 3 degrees outside the heated rooms. So the kids and I spent most of the evenings tucked up in bed watching videos with a duvet on and yet our first winter power bill that winter was $800. I mean that's real money even for us who had a high income at the time.Surprisingly when I moved to Invercargill actually it was worse. We moved into an old wooden villa—because I like old villas—and ambient temperatures were about 2 to 3 degrees on most mornings. So I would go to bed with gloves on double duvets and two hotties. I'd have my iPad in bed and there'd be fog on the iPad screen and my fingers would go numb touching the screen. But the thing is in both cases I had the money to sort that out. We ended up getting insulation and heat pumps and now it's a tolerable—I don't know how many degrees but it's survivable. But a number of people in my community have been talking to me about their winters. I remember a pensioner who was talking about the fact that she has to go to bed when the sun goes down with a hot-water bottle and duvet because she can't afford to pay her heating bills. Another mum got me to have a look at her home where it was a cold uninsulated home and the kids were getting repeatedly sick because again they couldn't afford the heating and it was freezing.I used to look after kids in the hospital system where they came in with lots and lots of respiratory infections. My colleagues even now are dealing with huge winter peaks. I think the thing is that this winter energy payment is going to make a huge difference to many people's lives because it will take that edge off that fear of turning on the heater. But some people are saying "Well OK does everybody need this winter energy payment?". There are some provisions so that if you're on a pension and you feel like you don't need it you can actually opt out. There are some very wise clauses though that say if you're actually a couple receiving it the Ministry of Social Development needs to make sure that you check with your partner first before you actually forgo the money in the pocket.The other people that may not be eligible are people living in residential rest homes in hospital settings where the Government's already paying their subsidy for their care because they actually have adequate heating. I mean visiting my own parents in a rest home I know that the temperatures are set really high and they don't need to actually afford it. But for everybody else those on a low income who are going to be in bed with the hot-water bottles this winter this is going to make a huge difference.So here's to entrenching the winter energy payment in our social security legislation and I commend SOP 25 to the committee. Thank you."