A damning report into Fire and Emergency NZ accuses the organisation of repeatedly giving wrong answers to questions from a Parliamentary Committee, creating a perception that FENZ leaders were trying to mislead an inquiry into the nation’s fire engine fleet.
The report, by Parliament’s Governance and Administration Committee, was also highly critical of FENZ’s decision to spend more than $275,000 on lawyers and public relations consultants, instead of giving direct answers to MPs’ queries.
The report’s authors said they believed FENZ managers when they said they weren’t deliberately trying to mislead.
“We were concerned by answers that were wrong. Mistakes can happen, but more concerning has been the perception created that FENZ is hiding from the truth or hiding the truth from this committee,” the report stated.
“There is some kind of cultural block which is stopping direct answers being given. We believe FENZ officials when they say they want to do the right thing, and that they are not deliberately trying to hide the truth. However, this appears to have manifested as a repeated pattern of trying to make the organisation look like it is performing well, rather than answering direct questions well.”
One example cited was FENZ’s ever-changing answers to questions about the 30 “type 3” fire appliances bought in 2019, and how many had so far been put into service.
Type 3 appliances are the class of fire truck most often used by paid urban brigades.
After a range of conflicting responses over a 15-month period, it transpired that not one of the new fire trucks was in use, seven years after they were purchased.
The “extraordinary amount” of incorrect information provided meant the committee had little confidence in FENZ’s current leadership, the report stated.
The inquiry, presented to Parliament on Wednesday, was set up to investigate concerns about the state of FENZ’s fleet of fire trucks.
The cross-party committee, chaired by Labour MP Jan Tinetti, came up with a raft of recommendations.
Labour MP Jan Tinetti.
RNZ / Reece Baker
that FENZ be directed by the government to “shift its focus from generating corporate documents to efforts that will deliver tangible improvements to frontline stations”;that FENZ be directed to invest in 10-year replacement contracts for its fire trucks, to ensure a “rolling pipeline” of new appliances;that the government consider whether another department should take over the job of buying fire appliances, or at least provide support;that the Minister of Internal Affairs review membership of the FENZ board, and consider whether extra government oversight is needed.
The report acknowledged the national fire appliance fleet was ageing when FENZ was created in 2017 by merging the old Fire Service and the Rural Fire Authority.
There had been some progress since then but the situation had become worse for several classes of fire trucks, especially those used by urban brigades and fitted with ladders for fighting high-rise fires.
The committee suggested FENZ switch to buying off-the-shelf fire trucks instead of trying to build the “perfect” customised fire appliance with all the delays and changes that entailed.
Wattie Watson.
RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Wattie Watson, national secretary of the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union, said her organisation felt “absolutely” vindicated by the report.
The union had been campaigning about ageing and unreliable fire trucks since 2022, she said.
“FENZ has gaslighted the country on the state of the fleet and there’s been various attempts to try and undermine what the firefighters have been saying, that it’s exaggerated or untrue or whatever. This report absolutely vindicates what the firefighters have been saying for many years.”
Watson said the 30 trucks bought in 2019 were still months away from being commissioned.
“There has been a lot of propaganda, misinformation, and incomplete information from management. This committee needs to be commended because they just did not let it rest. They kept delving into it, kept holding them to account, and did not believe what was put before them,” she said.
“This is not just an organisation being rapped over the knuckles for not following some public sector procurement policy. This is literally life and death. We’ve had firefighters close to death due to the breakdowns of these trucks.”
Watson told Checkpoint there needed to be a complete cleanout of the board over the failings.
“The board was sleepwalking, they were just taking whatever rubbish that chief executive Kerry Gregory and deputy national commander Megan Stiffler threw at them. There needs to be a complete clean out.”
Fire and Emergency board chair Raveen Jaduram said it acknowledged and apologised for the significant shortcomings raised in the report.
The report’s authors acknowledged the report would be tough reading for FENZ staff at national headquarters, who went to work each day wanting to do their best for New Zealand.
The report also stated every Kiwi could take heart from “one rock of confidence”: “Fire stations across New Zealand are manned by thousands of firefighters who give up their time, their work, their family, and their holidays to serve New Zealand. The vast majority of them are unpaid … These Kiwi heroes continue to serve day in and day out, regardless of which truck is parked at the station.”
The report stated New Zealand would always rely on a culture of service to respond to fires, car crashes, medical events and disasters.
“No matter how old the appliance is, the men and women who staff it maintain the finest Kiwi tradition of service and sacrifice, of hard work through adversity, and of finding a way to get the job done no matter
how challenging the circumstance.”
Both FENZ and the FENZ board have been contacted for comment.