Fire Service shake-up

Press, 1 March 1989, Page 6

Fire Service shake-up

By

ROGER KINGSBURY

in Blenheim

The Fire Service will be restructured, splitting its policy and management roles. A chief executive will be appointed by the Minister of Internal Affairs, Dr Bassett.

Announcing these changes at the annual conference of the United Fire Brigades Association in Blenheim yesterday, Dr Bassett said a Fire Service Amendment Bill would be introduced to Parliament this year. Dr Bassett said a target date of May has been set for completion of the review of rural fire services.

Dr Bassett said restructuring would give the Fire Service Commission a clear policy formulation and monitoring role. The day-to-day management of the Fire Service would be entrusted to its new chief executive. The new commission will consist of four parttime members and would comprise an administrative chairman, a senior Fire Service Commission member, the Secretary

for Internal Affairs, and another person.

The new commission would appoint the chief executive who would be both the general manager of the service and its operational chief. It is expected that the new chief executive will come from within the fire service itself but the job would be split if that person was not suitable to also be general manager. "The commander of the Fire Service will always be a senior uniformed person,” Dr Bassett said.

The Fire Service’s senior operational people should be potential chief executive material so that it need never look outside the service for its chief executive. “There is no doubt as to the expertise and competence of the service in

operational matters. However, given the resources now being employed by the service, both in personnel and material, the management task is one that calls for an equal level of professionalism,” he said. Dr Bassett said he would make the first appointment before the passing of the bill to avoid speculation and uncertainty about leadership and organisation. Changes within the Fire Service were inevitable and unavoidable but they would be orderly and there would be no large scale restructuring, Dr Bassett said summer had highlighted a number of inadequacies in the rural fire scene in response to which the Government had set up an official review team to report by May.