FENZ NOT BELIEVED ON KEY POINTS
REPORT CALLS FOR ACTION ON EMERGENCY RESPONSE CAPABILITY AND CAPACITY
BOARD MEMBERSHIP AND SENIOR LEADERSHIP COULD BE ON THE CHOPPING BLOCK
FENZ’s Board and Senior Management are heavily criticised in the Parliamentary Report into the Management of FENZ’s fleet. It records a lack of confidence in the membership of the Board and goes as far as recommending that the Government considers whether FENZ should even have the power to procure fleet and other services without formal oversight and intervention.
The Report calls for “a rapid reset of leadership culture” and a return to focusing on operational priorities and risks.
While the inquiry was into the management of the fleet, it has exposed widespread systemic problems stemming from the very top wasting time, money, and resources on corporatising the organisation instead of properly managing and resourcing emergency response.
This is not a paper-shuffling exercise – this report exposes serious systemic issues that could result in the avoidable death or serious injury of firefighters and those they are responding to.
The Report confirms the issues the NZPFU and its membership have been raising for years. It is proof that the dire emergency in fleet is real, not fabricated and not exaggerated. The Committee believed the evidence, including the submissions of the firefighters, and did not accept much of what FENZ claimed or attempted to portray.
The Committee called on the Government to take action on the failures of FENZ to properly manage and resource an emergency service.
“The number of additional issues raised that sit outside the scope of this inquiry points to a potential wider issue within FENZ that is of concern. This significant and serious issue with the fleet must be addressed with urgency, but it is likely that it is a symptom of a wider issue regarding the capacity and capability of FENZ that has developed over its nearly 10 years of existence.”
The Report lifts the lid on the utter failures of the Board and management and confirms the view of the NZPFU and its members that FENZ senior leadership has not only failed, but has misled and continues to mislead the public on the true state of the emergency service.
The Committee was “shocked” to learn FENZ had spent more than $254,000 on lawyers and PR consultants to assist them with the inquiry, including gathering information they should have had on hand.
The Committee did not accept or believe FENZ’s version of events. It is damning that when the CE and Deputy National Commander tried to portray that the fleet issues were not largely impacting response, wrongly claiming that 99.72 percent of the time appliances were available and left the station to respond, the Committee rejected this completely.
Critically, the Committee recommends that “the Government direct FENZ to record the true state of responsiveness of all types of appliances for all types of incidents, including when appliances are not available due to unserviceability or scheduled maintenance with no replacement.”
“We do not accept the 99.72 percent response rate as being truly reflective of the current state of FENZ’s response. We were told that it only measures response when an operational appliance is available and has left the station to respond. It does not capture situations where an appliance is not available at all, or where an appliance trying to respond does not start or is unable to leave the station. We think the information given to us by FENZ is misleading as to the true situation. We also think we should not have to prosecute detailed lines of questioning in a committee-initiated inquiry for the public to get this level of reporting about the current state of affairs.”
“This appears intentionally misleading.”
The procurement process FENZ used for fleet is heavily criticised, including the lack of transparency and acting on a “cold call” which ended up costing more and taking longer.
The decision to purchase the chassis was not thought through, and while the need for more appliances is understandable, it only served to create more time and cost blow-outs. There was no transparency in the selection of chassis or body manufacturers, timelines were excessively extended (beyond what could reasonably be attributed to COVID-19), and ultimately we are yet to see appliances in regular operational use.
More concerning is the apparent lack of oversight. We asked the board of FENZ to provide evidence of when it had discussed Type 3 issues. No evidence could be provided after December 2023. This is a gross failure at a governance level, as well as a management failure within FENZ.
The Report is clear – FENZ has failed miserably in the management of fleet and recommends the Government direct FENZ to shift its focus from generating corporate documents to delivering tangible improvements to front-line services. In particular, it recommends that FENZ should focus on finalising its Future Capability Operations project for planning to be prioritised by risk. Upon Deputy National Commander Megan Stiffler’s appointment, the “future” was taken out of the project and the whole project appeared to stall, if not stop. Just today, FENZ wrote to the Union offering to provide an update on the project – prompted by us seeking information and likely offered because of this Inquiry.
The information provided by FENZ changed markedly during the course of the inquiry, including on operational matters and financial allocations. The Committee did not accept positions being put forward by FENZ.
“We are concerned about the accuracy and, again, the transparency of answers.”
FENZ has cried poor, claiming $510 million would be needed over the next 10 years to replace appliances and that they would be short $154 million. While the Committee detailed funding issues, it did not let FENZ off the hook.
“However, we believe that resourcing is not the biggest hurdle. FENZ’s budget has almost doubled over 10 years, but outputs have not. We want to see a focus on prioritising operational outcomes, and better use of the existing budget before additional levies are considered.”
Other key points included:
- FENZ does not have a standalone fleet strategy.
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The age profile of appliances has worsened since FENZ was established in 2017. In 2017, 23% of the fleet was beyond the target age. In May
2026, that had increased to over 52%. The new appliances yet to come into commission will reduce, but not remove, those risks. Note that
current CE Kerry Gregory was a senior leader prior to 2017, so any claim that he inherited the problems should be viewed in that context.
- FENZ should focus on a future planning operational model prioritising risk, to be updated as conditions change.
- FENZ prioritised the rural fleet over urban and specialist appliances.
- Aerial appliances must be an investment priority.
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Training in general was another area of concern. The lack of live fire training for recruits and driver training needs to be addressed.
In unity,
Wattie Watson
National Secretary
