Subj : Minister 'not convinced' Fire and Emergency needs levy boost
To   : All
From : News Person
Date : Tue Apr 09 2024 10:09 am

Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden has asked Fire and Emergency NZ
(FENZ) to prove it needs a further boost to the levy they collect on
insurance.


With only $10m funded directly from the Crown, FENZ is almost entirely funded
through the levy and the service's expenses have increased about $200 million
since 2018.


FENZ released a consultation document on Sunday recommending a 5.2% increase
to the levy, as well as a change in how it is applied to improve equity and
better reflect incidents they are responding to.


NZ Professional Firefighters union secretary Joanne "Wattie" Watson said FENZ
is reduced to having this debate on levies rather than the bigger topic of
appropriate funding.


She said the organisation undertakes a lot of required responses "needed by
the community" that were not directly funded.

Medical response is one of those, she said, with 94% of all cardiac arrests
that take place out of hospital attended by firefighters.


"It's a matter of, at the moment, using what is levied to stretch across all
those really necessary and growing responses."


Watson said van Velden's approach of looking at whether a levy increase is
needed "isn't the right approach".


"The right approach needs to be, what is the service that is needed for New
Zealand and what have we got in order to do that now?"


There are "massive issues" throughout FENZ, said Watson, including unsafe
stations, lagging recruitment and outdated fleets.


"A lot of work has has been done in the last 18 months to assess what needs
to be procured... but that's going to cost money."


She said the solutions are "some other sources of funding".


'Lean and mean' back office required - Luxon
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon told Breakfast the minister is "doing the
right thing" by consulting with the public about the levy.


"That's why she's going through a full consultation process, which is the
right thing to do.


"It's important that she goes out to the public, gets a range of views on
whats the right level, and once she gets that feedback she'll make her
decision," he said.


He said FENZ do an "incredibly good job".


"We want to make sure that back-office function, as I keep saying, is
actually as lean and mean and efficient as possible so the funds and the
money can be put on the frontline."

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