Mooney JosephJOSEPH MOONEY (National—Southland): Thank you Madam Speaker. I rise as the member of Parliament for Southland on behalf of National Party to speak in respect of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Levy) Amendment Bill. This bill makes some minor tweaks which the National Party supports; however it does bring to mind fiddling while Rome burns because this is an incredibly challenging time that the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) members are facing. There won't be a member of this House who has not received many many emails from people who are very concerned about what is happening with FENZ and asking us to get involved and to assist. Although this bill does make some as I said minor amendments which are useful ones it doesn't address the fundamental issues.I was a volunteer firefighter for a number of years and I know just how great the contribution of firefighters around New Zealand is. These are people who have their heart in the community. Their first and foremost concern is for the community literally putting their lives on the line. It can be any time of the day or night at no notice and their families have to see their loved ones go away to protect and care for other members of the community—and literally as I say at times put their lives on the line. So I have a deep empathy for the concerns that are being expressed by these firefighters around New Zealand. I certainly hope every member of this House has been going to their local fire station and talking with people on the ground to find out what's happening because firefighters don't just fight fires; they respond to 96 percent of all ambulance out-of-hospital cardiac arrests around the country. Yet they are poorly trained and receive no recognition for this work and increased exposure to trauma.The number of career firefighters has barely changed since the 1990s despite the significant growth in population and other risks in the community but the corporate administrative arm of FENZ has increased by more than 200 employees. Career stations are regularly closed or fire trucks left unstaffed due to the lack of firefighters. The only way to increase career firefighters is to recruit but FENZ cancelled the April 2022 recruit course. This bill is not addressing these issues. Career firefighters are fatigued routinely working more than 60 hours a week with some working up to 100 hours a week to keep the stations open. Almost daily the 111 emergency call centres are operating below minimum staffing sometimes leaving one dispatcher to cover the whole of the South Island. This is unsafe and impacts on the quality of service to the public. Again this bill is not addressing that issue.Auckland has only two heavy aerial appliances needed for high-rise and large buildings which regularly break down. In 1984 the 800000 population which Auckland then had had the protection of five heavy aerial appliances. The most recent procurement of hose has been removed from fire trucks due to repeated instances of the hose failing leaving firefighters in burning buildings without water. I have fought fires and the idea of fighting a fire and not having water because the hose fails is absolutely horrifying. This is something again that the Government should be focusing on should be addressing. It is not being addressed in this bill.FENZ automatically provides income protection life insurance to its management and its corporate administration roles; yet it is refusing to provide an allowance to enable career firefighters to access medical insurance and income protection insurance. FENZ spent $10 million rebranding signage while career stations have closed due to black mould and asbestos. Other career stations have less than 50 percent seismic ratings and almost half of all career fire stations do not have sprinkler systems. There is a great irony: half of all career fire stations do not have sprinkler systems. This is a public safety issue as closed stations or insufficient firefighters means a fire truck has to come from further afield. I have been speaking to folks in my region who are expressing these concerns. They don't want to speak up. They don't want to be out there protesting. They want to be out there looking after their communities. Their focus is very much on serving and protecting the communities that they live and work in but they are deeply concerned that the community's safety is being put at risk by not having the resources that they need.FENZ has a revenue of $661 million—$200 million was forecast for when the merger occurred; $460 million in capital has been spent over the last five years; $460 million capital. It's an eye-watering amount of money. Yet FENZ has not been able to resolve issues with its lack of staff poor resourcing and procurement and bullying and mismanagement. We in the National Party want to see these addressed before any policy is implemented. Labour and Minister Tinetti need to make sure that FENZ has its spending priorities straight. With that like I say these are some minor amendments but we cannot fiddle while Rome burns.