Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill

I am proud to stand on behalf of the Labour Party to say that we support this bill. I think it is important that we recognise the Government Administration Committee and the role that it played in this bill, and I want to thank the chair and all of the members of the select committee for the good work that was done on this. I think the process means that we have got a better bill.

Of course, I am disappointed that we did not get the name of the organisation changed to include the word “Service”, but we accept that. Just to reiterate the point, I think it was very clear that the people who are going to be working for the new organisation see that as part of who they are and their brand. So, without further ado, I think we should pass this bill, and I commend it to the House. Kia ora.

Not before we have the last call. If you would like to see, I do not know whether there are too many other people wanting to take a call on this bill this evening.

It is actually quite a good feeling, standing here and being with New Zealand First strongly opposing this bill right the way through the House, although we did actually support Kris Faafoi’s Supplementary Order Paper (SOP) 263. Not that it was going to be a game changer by any stretch of the imagination, but I think a better title for this bill would be “Is This Going to be as Good as it is Going to Get under this Government’s Amendment Bill for the Fire Service?”. It might be more appropriate, because it certainly falls well short of the expectations of the Fire Service and people within the organisation, the volunteers, the rural, the urban, and of course all the taxpayers who are going to be funding this through their levy.

I think there are a number of areas within this bill that are actually applaudable. You clap and go “Well done, you’ve given it some consideration.”, but I do not think anywhere near enough consideration has been given to the people, the submitters, who have actually come in and given up their time to come and submit to the select committee, and basically their submissions have fallen completely and utterly on deaf ears.

This bill is being heroed by the Minister as a game changer, as a new way forward, as the pièce de résistance, if you like, moving forward with the Fire Service. Yet despite this being the 17th review in 22-odd years, straight after—it must have been about a month later—he then comes out suggesting that perhaps, as he scratches his head, it might have been a good consideration to include civil defence in this bill and perhaps we should have also included St John’s. It just goes to show how out of touch this bill is that at the 12th hour those such things could actually be included. To not look at the SOPs and the minor but very important change that they could make—charging a levy to those people, particularly those people jumping on a plane to get travel insurance who are spending their holidays over in Europe or in America or Australia, who have got themselves cover, and they are paying 7c in every $100 to make sure that they have got cover for the fire and emergency service in New Zealand—is absolutely, profoundly stupid. We have fallen into this claptrap so that we are going along like bobbleheads, just saying “Yes, OK, it’s a good idea because we’ve been told it’s a good idea.”—it does not make any sense at all.

When you look at the fire levy in its entirety, and you look at who is actually going to be funding the Fire Service—that is going to fall directly and largely into the hands of those commercial building owners and the residential and the people who are going to get insurance, with a touch-up with the car insurance. Yet there are going to be so many other people who use the Fire Service on a daily basis in our communities who will not be paying their fair share and funding it.

This service is a critical service, and if the Labour Party thinks the most important thing that it can put forward is changing the name and putting “Services” into Fire and Emergency New Zealand, or some description, then they too have got rocks in their head and got their priorities in the wrong place. That is far from what is needed with this bill. This is absolutely a million miles away. Just talk to your constituents. Talk to the people inside the organisation. Talk to the people who have got commercial properties. Talk to the landowners who are going to be marginalised in the rural parts of New Zealand. Their funding will not trickle down with this neo-liberal idea of an amalgamated regime.

Look at all the reports and the reviews that have come out—the Malone report, the Ferguson report, and “Forest Fires: causes and contributing factors in Europe”—all saying exactly what we are saying. We have not pulled our ideas out of thin air. We have researched it. We have looked at international situations that are proving and will prove that this bill is a dog’s breakfast.

Progress to be reported presently.

House resumed.

The Chairperson reported progress on the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill, no progress on the Māori Purposes Bill, and no progress on the Land Transfer Bill.

Report adopted.

The House adjourned at 9.56 p.m.