Smoke alarms save lives.
FENZ has plenty of cash to splash on advertising which includes promoting the importance of working smoke alarms for every home, yet is driving down the installation of those live-saving alarms.
FENZ has imposed a “closing lid” approach to the distribution of boxes of smoke alarms “to gradually transition districts to allocation levels that fit within the budget FY 2026/2027”.
The attached document shows FENZ has 1550 boxes of smoke alarms available across the country for July to December this year in the “closing lid period” which will drop to 1050 for the first six months of 2027.
FENZ was recently exposed as the 8th top Government advertising spender with big tech. That ranking was across tech advertising only (Alphabet, Meta, TikTok and LinkedIn) and does not capture the advertising in print, radio, television or as seen on the pitch at the Super Rugby Pacific final last weekend.
FENZ has spent up to $100,000 a week advertising the NZPFU strikes but have yet to provide the offer they said they were working up in March.
Today NZPFU members walk out for the 43rd time – firefighters, 111 emergency centre dispatchers, volunteer support officers, trainers, risk reduction and health and safety staff walk off the job from 12 noon today for one hour as they continue to fight for safe systems of work and a fair wage.
FENZ must be forced to come back to the table with a reasonable offer to settle the bargaining. The latest on that can be read here.
The FENZ senior leadership team must be held to account for failure to focus funding on the core functions of providing a fire and emergency service to protect and serve New Zealand.
There must be a full and independent inquiry into the management of FENZ’s funding. Go to www.direemergency.nz/help
to sign the petition to support the call for this vital inquiry.
In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary
