Mitchell Clayton: Annual Review Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeMitchell Clayton: Annual Review Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 14 April 2016. Volume:713;Page:10644. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CLAYTON MITCHELL (NZ First): Here we are on the annual review debate for the Finance and Government Administration Sector and I am going to be speaking this afternoon on the New Zealand Fire Service Commission. I was very pleased that the honourable member across from me Paul Foster-Bell started his contribution by talking about the Fire Service. I even sat forward at my desk—something similar to Simon Bridges when he got all excited—waiting to hear some absolutely captivating information with regard to this review that is currently under way. However nothing much further than just a mention of the review came from Mr Foster-Bell so it was a little bit disappointing.Hon Simon Bridges: Oh it’s a conspiracy.CLAYTON MITCHELL: The reality is that this is the 17th review in 22 years Mr Bridges—the 17th review in 22 years. We are not hearing anything other than “We’re going to shuffle the pieces of paper around on our desk a little bit more everybody” because there is nothing that is going to really significantly change the funding model of the New Zealand Fire Service. The only thing that is really going to be implemented is the inclusion of our urban search and rescue teams. When I look at the National Government’s motto for the 2014 general election it was “Working for New Zealand”. But I think its motto should have been “operatur in nobis privata agenda”. That is: “Working on our private agenda”. Certainly when you look at what is going on in New Zealand to do with our most honoured and highly recognised and respected organisation the New Zealand Fire Service its motto could actually be “postulatum auxilium Magis et minus”. That means in translated English: “More demand and less help.”Last night I spoke for the Department of Conservation and it is in a very similar situation to the New Zealand Fire Service when it comes to its funding model because there is a huge expectation from this Government that the people of New Zealand volunteer themselves to go out and fix this problem of lack of funding. Under-resourcing was the key feature in last year’s Budget and we are expecting the same nonsense coming out when the Minister starts talking for his Budget debate next month.For those people in this House who may not be aware and certainly for some of the people back home I have to bring our attention to just how large and important our New Zealand Fire Service is. It has 13900 people working for it. However only 1730 paid firemen and women are on the books plus another 600 administration staff. There are 8100 urban volunteers doing the job because this Government will not fund them adequately to enable them to get full-time paid employment in the Fire Service. There are another 3500 rural firefighters who have to go and do fund-raising to get equipment updated not to mention the absolutely nonsensical approach to the buildings that are not up to scratch and that are in serious need of repair. We have got fire stations in Christchurch that have still not been repaired and replaced. As it was pointed out by the honourable member across from me Paul Foster-Bell this is an organisation that does not just put out fires. This organisation comes to the aid of New Zealanders when it comes to severe weather incidents. It helps out with flooding and helps out the councils it attends car accidents emergency rescues and when there are gas leaks or when there are issues to do with hazardous substance releases. In fact we have got a case where a small rural town policeman needed some assistance to arrest somebody and who came to his aid? It was the New Zealand Fire Service.We need to get real. This Budget needs to include some severe support and funding for one of our most treasured organisations which is on its knees. We have got an urban search and rescue team that has been qualified in the top group of the world in relation to what it is delivering on and we have not even got an ability to get these people to the locations overseas to actually help them out when they need them like these countries did for us in our hour of need when we had our Christchurch disaster. We could not organise ourselves because we do not have the right transportation we do not have the right make-up and the right set-up and this current review that is under way is just nothing more than a paper shuffle.Just to finish off we can see that our fire levies are the major contributor to how this gets funded and we have just outlined the fact that that does not fit in with the model that we are currently using because the services of the fire department mean that a much wider broader approach is required.