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Peter Dunne Speech: Responsible Care New Zealand AGM

Hon Peter Dunne

Minister of Internal Affairs

26 August 2016

Peter Dunne Speech: Responsible Care New Zealand AGM


Responsible Care New Zealand AGM
Waipuna Conference Centre, Auckland
3pm, Friday 26 August 2016

Kia ora Tatou and a very good afternoon to you all.

Thank you for the invitation to speak at your AGM this afternoon and for the kind introduction.

May I acknowledge:
· Barry Dyer, CEO of Responsible Care
· Gordon MacDonald, Chief Executive of WorkSafe New Zealand.
· Tom Barratt, Chairman RCNZ
This afternoon I want to share some insights with you about the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill and in particular what the changes will mean in relationship to the chemical industry.

This is also a timely opportunity to acknowledge the long-standing, mutually beneficial relationship between the chemical industry and the NZ Fire Service.

Your practical support, particularly your participation in the important regional NZ Fire Service Hazardous Substances Technical Liaison Committees and access to your 24/7 CHEMCALL® Emergency Response Service, is very much appreciated.


The current fire services legislation has been in place for over 30 years and has not kept pace with what our communities need, nor is it relevant to the expanded roles of our fire fighters.

But the last substantial to the work and role of the Fire Service took place nearly 70 years ago, and a lot has changed since then. 30 years ago, at the core of the firefighter’s job was to put out fires. These days firefighters do not just put out fires, they are heavily involved in urban search and rescue, medical emergencies, motor vehicle accidents, and flood response amongst other duties and tasks.

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In hazardous substance emergencies alone, on average the Fire Service is called to attend over 3000 hazmat incidents per year.

So we had to modernise the mandate of our fire services to ensure they remained fit for purpose in the 21st century.

A modern mandate would ensure that changing expectations and demands on our firefighters were recognised, so they are better supported to perform these expanded duties.

This presented an opportunity to reform our fire services to better meet the needs of our communities and provide the support our firefighters need to carry out their important roles.

And so began the review process that marks the biggest change to the fire sector in recent history.

There have been 2 reviews in four years – the Swain Review in 2012 and the Fire Services Review in 2015. During the most recent review I met with hundreds of firefighters, countless brigades and rural fire forces, along with many local councils, forest owners, farmers, community representatives and special interest groups.

We gathered a lot of information during those meetings and over 230 submissions were received on the discussion document.

A clear message for change was evident.

We needed change – we had to update our fire services into a modern, integrated service that would be fit for purpose to meet the demands today and into the future.

In early July, I introduced the Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill into the House. This legislation is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to build a robust and flexible fire service that will serve New Zealand and its diverse communities well into the future.

The Fire and Emergency New Zealand Bill will create one national fire service, merging urban and rural, paid and volunteer firefighters for the first time.
Fire and Emergency New Zealand or FENZ will bring together more than 40 separate organisations, over 600 fire forces and brigades, more than 12,000 volunteers, and approximately 3000 paid staff into one new organisation.

The government has committed a total of $303million dollars over four years to fund the activities needed to build a new unified service. These include urgent capital upgrades, personal protective equipment, training needs and essential maintenance.

The new bill will also clarify and define the role of FENZ as responsible for dealing with hazardous substance emergencies.

Work on the transition to FENZ is going full steam ahead with the NZFS Board led by the Honourable Paul Swain putting in a lot of hard graft over the past few months to drive the change. The framework is now in place – making it come to life is the next step. There is still much work to do, however, we can see the end goal.

We now know the ‘what’ and we are moving to the ‘how’.

Ongoing consultation has played a vital role in shaping the legislation with the submission process now ended. Throughout the journey, there has been a commitment to ongoing engagement and consultation and I am looking forward to seeing the views expressed in the submissions on the bill.

So what does the advent of FENZ mean for the chemical industry?

Since changes were made to the Fire Service Act 1975 in the early 1990’s, the fire service has attended hazardous substances emergencies. The Fire Service Act currently has this function as one the Fire Service “may” attend. Figures from a New Zealand Fire Service survey from 2001 to 2012 show that 19,414 different products and substances were involved in hazardous substances emergencies.

This demonstrates the complexity and diversity the Fire Service has to contend with.

The Bill provides new powers and definitions for hazardous and other substances incidents, and will allow FENZ to provide an enhanced response.

One of the key changes under the Bill is that response to a hazardous substance incident becomes a primary function of FENZ, which it must respond to and be equipped for. FENZ is the primary agency for hazardous substances emergencies. However, Police still hold responsibility for criminally related hazardous substances emergencies.

The Bill also provides an additional function of FENZ in the promotion of safe handling, labelling, signage, storage and transportation of hazardous substances.
And this is where the challenge and opportunity lies for a closer working relationship between FENZ and the industry.

Of all New Zealand Fire Service responses to hazardous substances incidents 65 percent of incidents were on the road, 34 percent of incidents happened in buildings with less than 1 percent were marine or air related. These figures highlight the need to promote increased safety especially in the areas of storage and transportation.

The Bill also includes a new definition for ‘render safe.’ The definition clarifies actions that may be taken to ‘render safe’ a hazardous substance or emergency including the destruction or disposal of that substance.

The Bill also provides for the FENZ response to other substance emergencies.
A tanker carrying landfill leachate that rolled over at Wiri a few weekends ago is a perfect example of an “other substance” incident. That was not classed as a hazardous substance but is an unwanted contaminant to the environment, and required an emergency response to deal with it.

There is also a new definition of powers in relation to ‘by-products’. There is now a power that makes it explicit that FENZ may destroy or dispose of by-products created in the response to a hazardous or other substance emergency.
This power has restrictions on when it may be exercised, such as the owner must not be able to be found.

These definitions and powers will provide clarity around the responsibilities; actions and powers that FENZ may take or exercise in relation to their response to substance incidents.

The New Zealand Fire Service currently charge for their response to hazardous substance incidents, and cannot collect levy from insurance on hazardous substances. Under the new legislation, responding to hazardous substances incidents is recognised as a core function and as such, there will be no charges associated with these callouts. Costs will be funded through the new levy arrangements.

As I mentioned earlier, cooperation, frank and honest conversations and working together were the foundations used to help build a framework for what we consider will be a world-class fire service.

This foundation of partnership between industry and government will be key to improving national safety, health and environmental performance, particularly the safe management of hazardous substances.

I look forward to seeing FENZ and the chemical industry work together to support each other to reduce the incidents and consequences of hazardous substance emergencies.

We need to keep all New Zealanders safe. Yes there will be incidents. But what we can do is make sure we have done all we can to promote safety and encourage safe practice. I am pleased the new FENZ will continue to have access to your expertise, local knowledge and database of information, quickly accessible through your 24/7 CHEMCALL® service.

It is about reducing the number of incidents and ensuring that the people who respond to these emergencies, especially our volunteers are fully trained, equipped and skilled to deal with any hazardous substance they may encounter.

Thank you.

ends

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