Is there a better way to fund Fire & Emergency NZ?
October 31, 2019
To: All members
Fire and Emergency New Zealand was formed in 2017. It brings together urban and rural, and paid and volunteer firefighters. It responds to fire events, but also has other key functions (such as hazardous substances, and transport accident response).
The Government is reviewing the way that Fire and Emergency is funded. Presently it is funded by levies through property insurance. If you insure your house or contents, some portion of your insurance bill goes to pay for Fire and Emergency. The review is about exploring whether there are better ways to pay for Fire and Emergency and whether non-insurance funding options would be viable.
Many overseas models use a mix of approaches to fund fire and emergency services. For businesses and households, the key choice in phase one of the review is between the current insurance-based model (but look for ways to improve it in review phase two), or to move to a system based on property ownership (e.g. value or size). If a property-based levy was chosen, funding would either need to be collected directly by central government or collected by local government on behalf of Fire and Emergency.
For motorists, the key choice is between the current insurance-based model, moving to a vehicle licencing-based levy, or funding through land transport revenue (which is collected through taxes on petrol, road user charges and vehicle licencing and registration fees).
How can you have your say?
A public consultation document on the funding review is available,
here.
There are questions in the document which you can respond to. Consultation will run until 5 February 2020.
You can email your responses to
[email protected] or post them to us at:
Fire Funding Review
Department of Internal Affairs
PO Box 805
Wellington 6140
General public presentations
The Fire and Emergency review team is also going on the road to collect people’s views. Officials from the Department will be giving public presentations on the review, with the opportunity for those who attend to ask questions. If you’d like to come to one of the presentations, please follow the links below to register (registration is free but spaces for events are limited):
- Hamilton - Wednesday 6 November, 2.30pm – 4pm at the Distinction Hotel. Register here.
- Wellington - Thursday 7 November, 2.15pm – 3.45pm at the Department of Internal Affairs. Register here.
- New Plymouth - Monday 11 November, 12pm – 1.30pm at the Novotel Hotel. Register here.
- Rotorua - Thursday 14 November, 11am – 12.30pm at the Holiday Inn. Register here.
- Gisborne - Tuesday 19 November, 11.15am – 12.45pm at the Emerald Hotel. Register here.
- Auckland Central - Thursday 21 November, 10.30am – 12pm at the Quality Hotel. Register here.
- Auckland South - Thursday 21 November, 2.30pm – 4pm at the Naumi Hotel. Register here.
- Nelson - Monday 25 November, 10.45am – 12.15pm at the Beachside Event and Conference Centre. Register here.
- Christchurch - Tuesday 3 December, 10.30am – 12pm at the Addington Racecourse. Register here.
- Dunedin - Wednesday 5 December, 12pm – 1.30pm at the Otago Museum. Register here.
If you need more information, contact:
Nick Hanson
Manager Industry Policy
E:
[email protected]