New fire entity the way forward
Recently I attended the latest in a series of meetings and workshops related to the impending birth of Fire and Emergency New Zealand, a unification of the NZ Fire Service, Rural Fire Authorities and Enlarged Rural Fire Districts.
On July 1 the new entity will replace around 40 organisations. In my view it is a great move and having been involved in a variety of ways, I am impressed at the way in which the transition has been handled.
A team has been created who work under the name FENZ Project and there is a website with an incredible amount of information FENZproject.co.nz. I encourage people to have a look.
Fire services in New Zealand are currently delivered by around 14,000 people with over 11,000 of them being the volunteer fire fighters we see across our districts alongside the full time paid staff. So this change is massive when you consider the Auckland Council amalgamations involved around 10,000 people.
Annually our fire services and fire fighters are rated as the most respected organisations and people in the country, just above politicians! One of the absolute key drivers during the transition is to ensure that reputation and respect is not diminished in any way.
One of the other key things is to ensure that the ability for people to call 111 and have a big red truck with trained and equipped people on board.
Current legislation is limiting in providing the mandate and protections that should be afforded to those people hence the change. The new organisation will not only reflect the current needs of a fire and emergency response organisation but with a view to the future.
Having been involved in the Auckland Council transition through the transition agency created to manage that change. The greatest difference is that this transition is spread over a number of years and provides flexibility to allow the new entity to evolve, using status quo as the default setting. So while it is incredibly complex, in some ways it is slightly easier.
There have been a few attempts in the past to change the face of our fire services, but in my opinion, these have lacked the determination and willingness of both organisational leaders and politicians to actually make the hard decisions.
Fortunately changes in both urban and rural fire in recent years and a Government pushed hard by Peter Dunne to support change is creating Fire and Emergency NZ. For the sceptics however, it must be noted that instead of the change being supported as a way to create savings, there is a huge budget increase to support the change.
There will be a new look in time, but the response is unchanged and organisationally things will be better.
- Andy Baker is deputy chairman of the Franklin Local Board
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