MPs grill FENZ over unsuitable fire trucks and cost of fixing fleet
Tuesday, 21 July 2026
Fire and Emergency NZ’s top brass have been grilled about their strategy to ensure they have a fleet fit for purpose, and why trucks ordered as far back as 2019 were still not available for use.
Parliament’s Governance and Administration Select Committee formally launched an investigation into Fire Emergency NZ’s fleet management in April examining its current state, procurement challenges and future needs.
On Monday, the fifth and final hearing was held with MPs questioning staff, including Fire and Emergency NZ chief executive Kerry Gregory.
Newly appointed board chairperson Raveen Jaduram acknowledged the situation Fire and Emergency NZ had found itself in was not acceptable.
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When he first considered the issues, he asked himself “how hard could it be” to buy a new fire truck, but said an appliance was a bespoke and complex machine often operating in a difficult environment.
He accepted procurement processes had affected the timely rollout of these appliances, but said delays were also due to Covid-19, contract management and supplier performance.
He described this as “the long tail” Fire and Emergency NZ inherited from the 2017 merger and said the decision to purchase 30 type 3 trucks, for example, was made in good faith.
He accepted they would do things differently now, and said his role and that of others on the board was to provide oversight and ensure Fire and Emergency NZ responded quickly to any issues.
Ōtaki MP Tim Costley asked Jaduram if he was comfortable with the board’s actions given it had been seven years since the type 3 trucks were bought, but none were in use or had warranties, and another 28 were purchased before any testing was done.
National MP Melissa Lee touched on the need to improve the way Fire and Emergency NZ recorded faults with its appliances, but questioned why the organisation was spending millions to do so.
Fire and Emergency NZ was implementing a digital fleet logging system using the ServiceNow platform, which was being trialled in Wellington, and would be rolled out over the next six months.
MP Mike Davidson asked when the decision was made to implement this, but Gregory said he would have to come back with that answer.
This was the same response he gave to several questions, including one from Costley who asked what the five operational goals were in Fire and Emergency NZ’s 10-year plan.
Gregory said he was not able to “give them verbatim”, but added the document containing those had been superseded by the current 2025-2030 strategy.
Gregory was also unable to provide a figure as to how much it was costing Fire and Emergency NZ to maintain trucks that were not on the road and no longer had their warranty, but again he said he would “have to come back” with the answer.
Lee said this was not good enough and Fire and Emergency NZ had already spent $90,000 on consultants to help them find the information.
“How much more do you expect to pay?”
Gregory said Fire and Emergency NZ was not designed to support a “review such as this” and they needed the expert help to find the answers the committee was seeking.