Chris Bishop softens comments criticising FENZ as 'incompetent'

National's Chris Bishop has softened comments criticising Fire and Emergency (FENZ) as "incompetent" and lacking a plan to replace a fire station, after a rebuke from the internal affairs minister."I was expressing frustration that the Hutt City fire station closed in 2021 and there is community concern about that," Bishop told RNZ on Wednesday."Five years on, little to no progress has been made. I support a proper business case and I support investment plans and asset management plans. My frustration is the delays and the lack of progress."Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden of the ACT Party had criticised his initial comments, noting that FENZ was an operationally independent crown entity."That means ministers can't go in and pick and choose where stations go, but FENZ needs to identify which areas need investment the most," she said."We have a forecast for 10 years to spend at least $700 million on property investment across New Zealand, and in the next financial year, about 30 different stations up and down New Zealand will see investment into those areas."I don't want to see this being politicised, because it is a Crown entity that does make operationally independent decisions. It really isn't up to me or any other minister, or it shouldn't be, that in an election campaign we promise stations in certain areas."Bishop had made the initial comments at a public meeting in Lower Hutt on Tuesday when asked about the station's closure.A member of the public had asked why - given Labour sorted union negotiations out with fire-fighters after the first ever nation-wide strike - National had not done the same after 54; and why a community centre burned down about 550 metres from the previous fire station that got shut down."Been multiple fires in Alicetown, including the devastating local fire at the community centre on the 5th of November '25. It's approximately 550 metres from the old station - that should have been a fire extinguisher on the deck, put out within a minute."That building, sadly, was so badly damaged it's now been demolished, and the local community doesn't have a community centre."Bishop said the problem was "emblematic of everything wrong with the way we do infrastructure in New Zealand"."FENZ is a shocker at managing their assets. They barely know what they own. They don't have a long-term asset management plan for building new stuff like replacing fire stations that they need to close down."I have been pushing them and the Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden very hard to say 'what is the plan around the Hutt City fire station', and I just get crickets in response because you've got an incompetent governance and management there who've got no idea what they're doing and the Hutt is being let down, and I'm furious about it."The infrastructure minister, Bishop said National would "keep pushing hard on that because we do need a new fire station there ... I'm sick of being told 'oh, we're working on a business case, we're working on this'. It's blah blah blah blah blah. It's all just blah blah blah. We need action."Prime Minister Christopher Luxon had followed up, responding to the question about union negotiations by noting that was meant to be a process independent of ministerial involvement.He said the FENZ management team "has collected a huge amount of revenue off the back of corporate levies off commercial buildings, and has had plenty of money and has done dumb things with it"."The bottom line is... they have money. They have enough money. You think about the value of commercial property in New Zealand and how that has risen over the last 10 years and what they have done with it is some really dumb stuff."Luxon said they were "thinking very clearly about FENZ", and would be "socialising" a number of them "so just hang fire"."You know, we've got an Emergency Manager Minister, but doesn't have responsibility for- ... there's a whole bunch of just mush in the middle of it all."FENZ told RNZ Lower Hutt had the same number of fire-fighters responding to emergencies as it always had."We moved our people to Avalon because their previous building wasn't safe," the organisation said."Operational requirements for Hutt City will be approved by the end of September, and a business case is underway. That work tells us what's needed, where, and what it costs."We are considering an interim facility in the meantime. We have been searching for a site throughout. None have met our needs."Van Velden said it was "no secret that FENZ has long-standing issues"."I have been focussed on addressing them after years of neglect. I have directed the Board and chief executive to focus on strong planning and management of assets going forward, and finding back-office savings to re-invest in the front line."Under my watch, they have now completed a full suite of Asset Management Plans across its key operational areas, including Fleet, Property, ICT and Equipment. This is a massive improvement on where they were under previous governments.""We actually do have forecasts now that show how much money needs to be invested across fleet and across property; those never existed in the past. So there has been quite a lot that has happened under my watch."