NZ likely to establish national fire service

Urban, rural, volunteer and career fire services would be integrated into one national organisation. Photo / File

New Zealand is likely to get a new, national fire service - but regions will get a high degree of control over how they operate.

Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne has been leading a public consultation on changes to the fire service, and had put forward three options.

They were enhancing the current system, modifying it to establish new rural fire authorities or setting up a single organisation responsible for both rural and urban services.

Mr Dunne said after consultation a clear preference had emerged for a new, hybrid option.

This was the most radical step of establishing a single, national fire service, but giving regional services a stronger voice through advisory committees.

Urban, rural, volunteer and career fire services would be integrated into one national organisation.

"But that does not mean the fire service is one standalone national body without any regional input. Quite the opposite," Mr Dunne said.

"The New Zealand Fire Service as it works in Northland, say, will be a potentially different structure to the New Zealand Fire Service that works in central Auckland, because of the nature of conditions...etcetera."

Feedback from the consultation, including strong support for the new hybrid model, would now be taken to Cabinet. Legislation will be introduced early next year, with the new service likely launched by the middle of 2017.

The changes come after a 2012 review called for reform, and cited a lack of support for rural firefighters and a lack of clear responsibility.

The current fire service is about 84 per cent volunteer, and Mr Dunne said a key challenge would be to keep attracting volunteers in the future.

The service is mostly funded through an insurance-based fire levy, with some contribution from the Government.

Mr Dunne said there was no decision yet on how the new service would be funded, but it would be similar to the current insurance levy model.

He said the new service would cost "broadly" the same as the current system. Asked if people could see their insurance costs rise, he said he was unable to comment on that at this stage.

"I think that is probably unlikely, but quite what the structure will be depends on just where the financial discussions - which are pretty close to being concluded - settle."

The Insurance Council has strongly criticised the review process, saying all three options ignored the fairest funding model, which was through taxation and not insurance levies.