Logie JanJAN LOGIE (Green): It is with great pleasure that I rise to take a call on this the third reading of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill. I too on behalf of the Green Party want to offer congratulations and acknowledgment to the Minister on getting us to this point. It has been said by others but I think it is worth each of us repeating that this is a very significant piece of legislation. It is legislation that supports the people who are protecting us and our property and those who at times lose their lives in that process and so there is not much more important business. This is reform that has been tried before and has not been able to be done so I really do want to acknowledge what it has taken to get us to this point. This is the most significant reform since the 1940s. While it is an updating of the Fire Service Act of 1975 and the Forest and Rural Fires Act of 1977 in some ways those separate pieces of legislation represented a point in progress that had not moved us very far from what we knew we needed at an even much earlier time and we have got to it now at a much more significant point. We acknowledge that this is the result of a huge amount of very significant thinking—there were reviews in 2012 and 2015—that considered what was needed in this reform and then we had 104 submissions 47 of which were oral submissions through the select committee process.Those submissions as others have mentioned came from a very wide range of people from people who would be levied and insurance companies that are involved in that process to those who are on the front lines. I too want to give my thanks to particularly those on the front line who shared their experiences and challenged us to think about some of the practicalities involved in this degree of reform.I do want to note that one of the things I am most encouraged by in this legislation is actually a very very small point in it but it is the implementation of a 3-year review of the legislation. We have known we needed significant reform since the 1940s and it has taken us until 2017 and when it comes to this kind of civil defence we know that we have got increasing demand on these services. This is a massive reform that we are undertaking at the moment and we know that we are not going to have it right in its entirety. I think there is trust from most in Parliament that we are moving forward and in the right direction but that we are not going to have got all the details right so that 3-year review is critically important. It points us towards ensuring that the systems in the meantime are reflecting on what is working and what is not so that we can be in a mode of constant improvement and I hope that is the will of everyone. It was certainly the mood in the Government Administration Committee.I do want to acknowledge that since this bill was introduced we have had the Kaikōura earthquakes the Wellington earthquakes; we have had the flooding in Wellington and Kāpiti and Porirua; and we have had the fires in Christchurch—on the night of the second reading which made this so poignant—and in Hanmer and the floods in Coromandel and those were just within the time of the consideration of this bill. To me it just brings home how critically important this legislation is because we are seeing more and more need for emergency services in responses to floods quakes and cyclones and this is going to be increasing as the already-locked-in impacts of climate change escalate.I do want to speak to some of the points of content of the bill while noting that obviously we are supporting this bill. We understand and acknowledge that there are 14000 people whom this bill is covering 80 percent of whom are volunteers. I particularly want to acknowledge that this is a bringing together of two cultures from the urban force and the rural forces and that volunteers are primarily in the rural areas. Volunteers are a heart of our rural communities and it would not work—well in some people's heads I guess in the city we assume many positions should be paid and we expect that and that is appropriate in an urban setting but within a rural setting the context is different and I think it really is quite an exceptional undertaking to try to bring these two very distinct cultures into one organisation.I do think it will make the local advisory committees critically important and it will also make important the fact that the legislation enables an independent advocacy and support service to be set up—because there is likely to be a time when the needs of the paid force and the volunteers could come into conflict and when the trust in the institution of Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) which would more likely be representing paid interests may be seen to have a conflict. So to have that agency or support or service set up in consultation with the volunteers so that there would be that avenue for independence is I think a very wise provision in this bill. We certainly heard that sometimes those relationships have not been easy and we want to make sure that the legislation supports a positive pathway forward of recognising those different interests at times and protecting people in that process.Also I would like to again reiterate our hope and understanding and assurances that are on record around the levy process. I do hope that we will see a very simple and transparent system set up via regulation. My preference is always for us to have worked these things out before the legislation passes and for it to be part of that public consultation within the legislation. I am not a fan of this thing—which we seem to be having quite commonly through Parliament—of having the enabling legislation with detail that is so absolutely significant being done outside the parliamentary process. However it is good to have the assurances and we will certainly be keen to be involved in any discussions about the establishment of that levy system.I do hope that there will be a levy waiver system for our public institutions. I would acknowledge Paul Foster-Bell's contributions in the committee particularly around protection of our art galleries and museums which are dear to all of us and I did hear a particular interest from that member in the process of doing that.Another aspect in terms of the bill that we will certainly be looking for feedback on is acknowledging that the title has services" taken out and that that is a point where some people feel as if their reason for being engaged in this work has been made invisible. I do think that that is a shame. The acronym "FENZ" to me is not so pretty that it could not have been "FESNZ". I do not know—I think we could have come up with something a bit better.Hon Ruth Dyson: Public policy by acronym.JAN LOGIE: Yeah. I don't know—I think we could have come up with something a bit better that did acknowledge the importance of people's service and the reasons that they are doing this and made that visible in the title of the bill and the organisation. But that is where we are at at the moment and there will always be a chance for progress in that 3-yearly review.In the final moments I do again just want to offer the Green Party's absolute heartfelt thanks for all those paid and volunteer firefighters who put their bodies and their mental well-being on the line for us on a daily basis."