The New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union is demanding a wholesale leadership shake-up at Fire and Emergency New Zealand, arguing the latest revelations surrounding its chief executive and a parliamentary inquiry have pushed confidence in the organisation to breaking point.
The NZPFU says chief executive Kerry Gregory and other members of FENZ’s executive leadership must be held accountable following revelations about information not provided to Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden and a separate matter referred to the Serious Fraud Office. The union says the undisclosed issue appears to involve the fire service levy and is calling for FENZ’s financial reporting and levy-related decisions to face intensive scrutiny.
The allegations relating to the Serious Fraud Office referral have not been tested, and a referral does not itself establish wrongdoing. However, the union argues the matter compounds concerns already identified by Parliament’s Governance and Administration Committee.
The committee’s inquiry into FENZ fleet management was highly critical of the organisation’s leadership and information provided during its investigation. It found a pattern of incorrect and misleading answers, questioned the accuracy and transparency of information supplied and called for a rapid reset of leadership culture.
The inquiry also revealed FENZ spent more than $254,000 on lawyers and public relations consultants assisting with the parliamentary investigation. The committee rejected FENZ’s previous claim that appliances were available and leaving stations for responses 99.72 percent of the time as an adequate representation of the real condition of the fleet.
Fleet figures revealed another major problem. In 2017, around 23 percent of FENZ appliances were beyond their target age. By May 2026 that had climbed above 52 percent, while the committee found FENZ still did not have a standalone fleet strategy.
The NZPFU now wants major organisational changes put on hold, including restructuring and changes affecting career firefighter staffing and emergency response, until governance and leadership concerns have been addressed.
It is also calling for accountability beyond Gregory, naming senior executives responsible for operations, corporate services, people, assets, training and prevention. Claims made by the union about the conduct or responsibility of individual executives remain the NZPFU’s allegations and have not been independently established.
The dispute comes alongside a bitter employment battle. The NZPFU has previously accused FENZ of reducing career firefighter numbers in Auckland and reneging on an agreement in principle for additional firefighters and emergency call-centre dispatchers. FENZ and the union have also been locked in protracted collective bargaining and industrial action.
For communities, the argument reaches beyond Wellington management structures. FENZ provides one of the country’s most critical emergency services, including across rural communities, marae and areas heavily dependent on volunteer brigades.
The parliamentary inquiry has now placed the reliability of the fleet, procurement, organisational capability and leadership culture firmly under the microscope.
The question confronting FENZ is no longer simply how it replaces ageing fire trucks — it is how it rebuilds confidence among firefighters, Parliament and the communities relying on those trucks to arrive when lives are at risk.
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