Abstract
Less than a month after the 2015 Budget a coroner released a report on the tragic 2014 death of Emma-Lita Bourne, who had been living with her family in a state house in Ötara until unexpected complications of a respiratory infection led to her death in Starship Hospital. For the first time a coroner implicated poor housing as a cause, stating that ‘Whether the cold living conditions of the house became a contributing factor to the circumstances of Emma-Lita’s death cannot be excluded’ (Shortland, 2015, p.9). The house was cold and mouldy and the family had been unable to afford any heating.