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Jordan Williams: Taxpayers' Union Executive Director on the pay rise for Fire and Emergency's board members · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Foreign Emergency board members getting a pay rise of up
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: to eighty percent this year comes as the firefighters themselves
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: are fighting for a pay rise. Equipment's breaking. Things that
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: are firefighters angry. Basically, Taxpayers Union also a bit angry.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: This morning. Jordan Williams, Taxpayers Union, Executive Director of US.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Morning, Jordan, Good morning Ryan.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Now, the argument is that you need to pay board
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: members a decent wikit otherwise you get, you know, pay peanuts,
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: get monkeys.
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that is true, but this really actually
• 0:31
  Speaker 2: just highlights what have been systematic issues with a total
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: failure of governance and oversight within FENS. The background of
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: FENDS is that the rural and urban fire services were
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: merged together in twenty sixteen back under Peter when Peter
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: Dunn was Minister. We warned at the time this has
• 0:52
  Speaker 2: proved to be a disaster in Australia, where they are
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: actually moved to dmalgamate them. Our most recent port on
• 1:00
  Speaker 2: this two years ago showed that the whole basis of
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: the amalgamation was it was to save fifty million a year.
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: Instead it's costing us an extra quarter of a billion
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: a year. We get more correspondence than any other government agent.
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: We're justinaying the other government agencies about failures of governance
• 1:22
  Speaker 2: within FENS. Clearly it has lost its community service ethos.
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: I can go through lots. I've got a third more
• 1:31
  Speaker 2: managers since FENN started, despite having only five percent more firefighters.
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: The point is this, you've got frontline workers desperate for
• 1:42
  Speaker 2: equipment that actually works, desperate for actually a fair wage,
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: and you have a what they would call a BS
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: tower management hierarchy in Wellington that is totally out of touch.
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: But is that is that because we're paying them? On
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: board member gets what twenty five grand at the moment
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: they well go up to forty five? I mean, is
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: it because of the people that you might be able
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: to attract with that type of remuneration.
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: Well, it used to be. It used to have a
• 2:13
  Speaker 2: real community service ethos. Unfortunately I understand that is gone.
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: There were quite serious allegations about toxicity within the senior
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: hierarchy within FENS. Their management structure has exploded. I think
• 2:29
  Speaker 2: last county was eight deputy chief executives. The oversight of
• 2:35
  Speaker 2: FENDS in terms of a value for money prospect was
• 2:37
  Speaker 2: actually sits not with Treasury, It sits with the IA
• 2:40
  Speaker 2: with Apartment in affairs. Because they're not funded through taxes,
• 2:44
  Speaker 2: you don't have to wrect treasury oversight. Fends is funded
• 2:48
  Speaker 2: through an insurance levy. The point is two things. Number One,
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: very clearly there is failures of government. I'm not convinced governance.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: I'm not convinced. It's not good people willing to put
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: their hand up. It's the government's poor oversight are of
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: this organization. And number two is when this was going through,
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: one of the compromises that taxpayers were promised was a
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: post implementation review of fans. We are now ten years
• 3:21
  Speaker 2: later and it has not happened. In fact, they hadn't
• 3:24
  Speaker 2: just not happened. Van Valden turned down the request to
• 3:29
  Speaker 2: have that post implementation review. I think that stories like
• 3:32
  Speaker 2: this demonstrate why we need that review, because, frankly, when
• 3:39
  Speaker 2: you've got the you know, the firefighting union which is
• 3:42
  Speaker 2: one of the more militant ones, and the taxpayers union
• 3:45
  Speaker 2: agreeing there is major problems here, that there might.
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: Be something's got to be wrong. Jordan, appreciate your time
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: this morning. Thank you, Jordan Williams. Taxpayers for more from
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: early edition with Ryan Bridge, listen live to news Talk
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: said be from five am weekdays, or follow the podcast
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: on iHeartRadio.