Roche DeniseDENISE ROCHE (Green): I rise to take a very short call for the Greens to support the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill in its second reading. I was not involved in the committee but I understand through the submissions that there was quite a lot of discussion about it which is not surprising given that it has taken quite some time to get to this position. My understanding is that this bill is the result of a review that occurred in 2012 and again a couple of years later. It brings together the Fire Service Act 1975 and the Forest and Rural Fires Act 1977 but essentially the laws relating to the New Zealand Fire Service and the way it has operated have not really changed since the 1940s. Society has changed since then so it is actually timely that we bring together—we have seen the work that has happened across these reviews—the range of services particularly the rural and urban setting for the fire and emergency services.Before I go any further I also want to add my condolences and send my regards to the people of Christchurch and Port Hills. Our MP who is based in that area Eugenie Sage like Ruth Dyson has gone back tonight to be with the people there to be with part of her community.I think it is timely to acknowledge the work that goes into providing these emergency services. Yes I do acknowledge that 80 percent of the fire services are provided by volunteers. Between them all they keep us safe. If we consider the type of fire that is happening now in Port Hills and the one in Hastings recently and if we look at the temperatures that are going through the thermostat with the impacts of climate change—we are seeing that happening in Sydney and elsewhere in Australia—it is more and more likely to occur here in drought-stricken areas in Aotearoa New Zealand. When we think about that we need to be futureproofing the emergency services that we do have.That brings me back to the bill. Some of the concerns that were outlined in the select committee report and in three submissions have been about funding. This bill ensures that there is one funding source rather than a range of funding sources which had occurred for the rural fire service previously but there are some concerns about whether the funding is adequate. In particular there are some issues around fire investigation. That was raised several times through the submission process. The report talks about the committee having some concerns about investigations not being undertaken by the peak body Fire and Emergency New Zealand and that it will not be required to employ fire investigators. From my understanding this will be done through the police. However there is a specialist area here and I think that actually we should be considering that and considering having that paid for through the levy that is going to be supporting the organisations in the first place.I guess the other thing that we need to be concerned about is the modelling of the funding. We were very concerned that the predictions of $47 million a year in savings from the ongoing support for volunteers may leave the voluntary fire service in a difficult position. That is certainly not what we want now.The other thing that I really want to add is that this bill has been a long time coming; it came in for its first reading in July last year so it has been quite a process to get it to this stage. Overall despite the concerns we have around funding we are supportive of the bill and we recommend it to the House.