Faafoi KrisKRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana): Can I begin by acknowledging the management of the Fire Service some of whom are here today. I think they are here to make sure that this legislation actually goes go through today after waiting such a long time. So can I acknowledge them especially on International Firefighters' Day as the Minister pointed out. Can I also acknowledge the Minister Peter Dunne. As many contributors have said this piece of legislation has been a long time coming. There have been many attempts and it was a heavy piece of work not only legislatively but also in trying to unravel an organisation and put a new organisation together. So can I acknowledge Peter Dunne for the work that he has done there.Also can I acknowledge all the members of the Government Administration Committee which I used to be a member of and also my colleague Adrian Rurawhe who sat on the committee as well because it was one of the best select committee processes that I think I have sat through. There were plenty of issues to get through and I think we worked around the committee pragmatically to deal with a lot of the issues which I think a lot of the MPs had a good understanding of because as local members of Parliament we do work closely and liaise with our local firefighters. Many of those who have contributed have talked about the likes of levies and obviously the organisational change but this is a good piece of legislation in the fact that it has been a long time since the Act was amended and this is a good opportunity to deal with some of the practical issues in that firefighter space.I want to acknowledge some of the firefighters and brigades in my electorate some of whom are in the House. I acknowledge Carl Mills. I see Tāmati Kaa up there. I acknowledge you all—Gavin as well. I saw Chad O'Hara up there as well.This is because as well as answering the call when the sirens go off this committee had over 110 submissions a lot of them from brigades themselves and what I take from that is that not only are they concerned about what they are doing day to day in volunteering but when the opportunity—a once-in-70-years opportunity—came up to change the legislation our volunteer firefighters our rural firefighters our professional firefighters were engaged in the process to make sure that the legislation was as good as it could be for their communities. I think hats off to them because they could have just said: We'll just look after our own patch. We're OK. These issues we can deal with locally." But they saw a probably once-in-a-generation opportunity to change when the legislation was being changed and they took that opportunity and made a hell of a lot of submissions—a lot of them that the select committee took seriously.I do want to acknowledge and ask that consideration be given to one issue which was a fly in the ointment for one of my volunteer fire brigades at Plimmerton and ask the management of what will become Fire and Emergency New Zealand—as we did at the Committee stage—about the traffic management plans. I think as a local representative—and all MPs in this Parliament think—that there would be an understanding in the community that all the fire hydrants in New Zealand are being checked that they are operational on a relatively regular basis. It was my understanding from some of the advocacy that came to me that that might not necessarily be the case because of some of the traffic management plans and the onus—the uneven onus—on some of the brigades around the country.As we said I would like that issue—despite it not being within the legislation—to be continued to be dealt with by Fire and Emergency New Zealand because I think it is a real issue in the community. It is something that if one day—God forbid—it became an issue when a hydrant did not work and something could have and should have been done I think it could come back to this House because we did not deal with it in a legislative way. So my request is—we had an assurance from the Minister that the officials and the management are aware of this issue and that it is going to get dealt with. I would ask that in the plan of work of the new entity that does happen to make sure that the community-minded volunteers and brigades out there can go out there and check the hydrants to make sure that they work. I think that is what every New Zealander assumes is happening at the moment but might not be the case."