McAnulty Kieran; Martin TraceyKIERAN McANULTY (Labour): Thank you very much Madam Deputy Speaker. Here I was thinking we were going to hear from Matt King about levies. Instead he shamelessly used this opportunity to tell us about his two years in the fire brigade. So let me tell you about my seven years—DEPUTY SPEAKER: No. KIERAN McANULTY: No. No I'll weave it in so it's relevant to the speech because that's what a good MP does. But it is wonderful and I do want to acknowledge Matt King and all the other volunteers that serve our communities and don't be so hard on yourself sir—two years is still two years more than most and so good on you. But it is wonderful to be able to stand here and say that my service record is bigger than Matt King's so that's marvellous. But anyway our communities rely on volunteer firefighters and it's not just to fight fires as we've heard many times tonight. Even in my short tenure of seven years I noticed a lot more of an increase in the demands on the time on the fire service be it for a motor vehicle accident or assisting with a medical incident—including I regret to say many suicides—and for our communities that rely on the service it needs to be properly funded and the system that funds it needs to be up to scratch. I think of those communities in the Wairarapa electorate where the Hon Ron Mark and I live—I think we're the only MPs in here that live in Wairarapa. So stretching all the way up the Central Hawke's Bay are those very small communities like Norsewood and Pahīatua that revolve around those services or our rural firefighting services that were brought in amongst the wider Fire and Emergency New Zealand restructure who up until recently have had to share essential things such as boots and helmets and who used trucks that are older than many of the MPs in this House. It was not a situation that was sustainable and it was not a situation that could ensure the safety of our rural communities or our smaller communities that rely on volunteers. The fact is that that change—you won't hear me arguing against it on the whole but the bill that originally brought it in did not bring in a structure that actually over the test of time was fit for purpose. I commend the Hon Tracey Martin for identifying that and bringing forward this bill to the House to make the changes that are necessary. For 150 years this country's been relying on volunteers to look after their communities. Now obviously with my background I've been focusing on the volunteers but it's not just them. It is those that actually are employed in fire and emergency services as well—our comrades in the service—who are dedicated and for pretty relatively low levels of pay given the risk that they put to their lives are doing it because of their love of the role and their love of their community. The reason they have so many people signing up to become a firefighter—a permanent firefighter—way more than there are places demonstrates people's commitment to the role and the opportunity to serve the communities. It's not an easy role and that's why it's so important to fund these things properly. These people put their lives at risk at no notice. Those that work full-time do so on a roster system. Those that volunteer are on call 24 hours seven days a week and any situation where those services are not adequately resourced and those resources are not adequately funded I think is a shame on this country. We as a country should not rely on the goodwill of people and then not adequately resource them. So I do stand in support of this. I stand in support of the pragmatic approach to fixing the previous legislation and to take the opportunity to send a message to those who serve our communities be it through paid positions or volunteers. I invite members here if they haven't had an experience or who have perhaps an opportunity to go find out more about their local volunteer services to go and do so. Even here in Wellington go down to the waterfront when the next firefighter combat challenge is under way. They call it the toughest two minutes in sport. I went down this year to watch Bevin Wolland and my cousin Bryce O'Donnell take part—DEPUTY SPEAKER: Can we come to the bill.KIERAN McANULTY: —and they were talking to me about this bill Madam Deputy Speaker. DEPUTY SPEAKER: I don't think so. KIERAN McANULTY: No—you caught me out there. Look I may as well take the cue and congratulate the Minister again and I very proudly commend this bill to the House. Bill read a first time. Bill referred to the Governance and Administration Committee.Hon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister of Internal Affairs): I move That the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill be reported to the House by 1 April 2019. Motion agreed to.