Members of Parliament across the political spectrum have listened to NZPFU members and this afternoon have announced there will be a Select Committee inquiry into the dire state of FENZ’s fire fleet.

The NZPFU has been lobbying Members of Parliament and educating the public about the significant and avoidable risks FENZ’s mismanagement of the fleet has created – risks for the public and risks for the firefighters responding in the failing fleet.

Today, the Parliamentary Governance and Administration Select Committee has announced an inquiry into the fleet. The details are yet to be provided, but this is a massive first step in exposing the real crisis in FENZ in order to hold FENZ management to account.

CE Kerry Gregory and Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler have been exposed through FENZ providing misinformation or incorrect information in response to questions raised by members of that Select Committee or responses in the House on the issue of the fleet.  They then failed to personally appear at a special hearing of that Committee which was to correct the record.  Instead, they sent employees who were not able to answer all of the issues raised.

That resulted in National MP Tim Costley and Greens MP Mike Davidson separately writing to the Committee seeking an inquiry into the fleet.  The NZPFU understands that Committee met this afternoon where it was agreed an inquiry would be conducted.

The NZPFU has been calling for a broad inquiry into the capacity and capability of FENZ, including the management of the funding.  While this announced inquiry appears to be focused primarily on the emergency response fleet, this is a fantastic start to getting the answers New Zealanders deserve.

The NZPFU will be working with Locals and members to ensure we are ready and able to provide submissions detailing the epic failures of fleet and what needs to fix the dire emergency, when the detail of the inquiry is announced.

We thank National MP Tim Costley and Greens MP Mike Davidson who separately wrote to the committee seeking an inquiry, National MP Tom Rutherford, Labour MPs Jan Tinetti (the Chair of the Committee) and Lemauga Lydia Sosene for their support and tenacity in seeking the truth about FENZ Fleet.

FENZ was established in 2017 and in eight years not one new fire appliance had made it to career fire stations.

There is a dangerous lack of aerial and other special appliances.  Auckland has far less aerial appliances in 2026 than it had in the 1990s.

And even where there are appliances, they are ageing and breaking down on a regular basis – leaving firefighters stranded on the way to emergencies or mid-response as emergencies putting the public and property at significantly increased risk.

FENZ does have new fire trucks in the country currently being trained upon, but they are only a drop in the bucket and there are no others ordered.  Even those trucks have faults and teething problems which need to be fixed before they can be operational.  NZPFU members are doing everything they can to get the trucks operational and crews trained, but the list of faults is long and requires appropriate testing before being commissioned.

We will update members when we have more detail on the nature and scope of the Select Committee inquiry.

In unity,
Wattie Watson
NZPFU National Secretary