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Speaker 1: Now firefighters are not happy. They claim that the new

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Speaker 1: fire trucks that have been bought by FENS are too

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Speaker 1: small for all their life saving gear. Finns has spent

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Speaker 1: millions on twenty eight new trucks, but the crews say

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Speaker 1: that the lockers are about twenty percent smaller than they

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Speaker 1: used to be and they're considering cutting holes in them

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Speaker 1: to make more room. Meghan Stiffler is the FENS Deputy

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Speaker 1: National Commander and with us, Hey.

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Speaker 2: Megan Cure, Heather, how are you?

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Speaker 1: Yeah, well, thank you, okay, So are they right? Are

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Speaker 1: the lockers smaller?

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Speaker 3: We have twenty eight new trucks that have landed in

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Speaker 3: New Zealand. Eleven of those are used for specialist rescue

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Speaker 3: trucks and when we did our testing, there is some

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Speaker 3: equipment that isn't suitable for the new design. So we

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Speaker 3: are working with our crews currently on identifying why the

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Speaker 3: inventory list is different and how we can best fix

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Speaker 3: that for them. Yeah, so that's what we're up to

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Speaker 3: at the moment.

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Speaker 1: What inventory list is different? What does that mean?

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Speaker 3: Well, what we do is with every fire truck, we

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Speaker 3: have a standard inventory to ensure that every community gets

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Speaker 3: the same response with the inventory that was put together

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Speaker 3: with the working group. There were some items that weren't

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Speaker 3: listed on that and that's the bit that I'm working

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Speaker 3: with fire crews at the moment is to understand why

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Speaker 3: they weren't on a list, and if they are required,

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Speaker 3: how I can best meet their needs by having the desires.

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Speaker 1: Oh are you are you saying Megan that when you

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Speaker 1: guys bought the trucks, you bought them for a specific

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Speaker 1: list of gear that would go in there. But now

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Speaker 1: that the trucks have arrived, the guys, the firefighters want

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Speaker 1: to chuck more gear in.

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Speaker 3: Not that they want to truck gear in Heather. I

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Speaker 3: think we have specialist rescue crews that.

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Speaker 2: Have you know what I mean identified You.

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Speaker 1: Had bought trucks for x x number of bits of gear,

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Speaker 1: and now there are more bits of gear that need

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Speaker 1: to go on the trucks.

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Speaker 2: Apparently.

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Speaker 1: Is that what's happening?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, eleven of the twenty eight we have identified needs

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Speaker 3: some more space and that's what we're working with our

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Speaker 3: crews on.

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Speaker 1: So this is a firefighter's proper and they should have

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Speaker 1: given you a better list.

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Speaker 3: Oh no, No, this is an organizational problem that we're

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Speaker 3: going to solve with our frontline firefighters.

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Speaker 1: Host fault is this.

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Speaker 3: I'd like to think of it as a solution rather

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Speaker 3: than fault.

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Speaker 2: I think if we work together, what a crop come

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Speaker 2: off us?

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Speaker 1: If you're buying, stop it, megan. If you're buy like

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Speaker 1: you are the firefighters who need to save our lives.

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Speaker 1: If you're buying fire trucks that are too small, somebody

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Speaker 1: made a mistake. Who made the mistake? Come on, they

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Speaker 1: did it.

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Speaker 3: They're not too Yeah, I just want to clarify. Those

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Speaker 3: eleven fire trucks that we're talking about are fit for

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Speaker 3: purpose for the normal fire pump. So all we're doing

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Speaker 3: is adjusting our schedule and putting eleven brand new trucks

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Speaker 3: into communities that only.

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Speaker 1: But isn't it isn't the problem that they're leaving off

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Speaker 1: all this life saving equipment that they would need, like

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Speaker 1: I don't know, jaws of life stuff to cut people

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Speaker 1: out out of car crashes.

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Speaker 2: Isn't that a sand stuff up? Not for the standard pump.

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Speaker 3: That's what I'm saying, Like, we've got twenty eight brand

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Speaker 3: new trucks.

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Speaker 2: But you guys don't just.

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Speaker 1: Fight fires, right, you go and save people from car

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Speaker 1: crashes as well, you.

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Speaker 3: Too, of course, and those standard fire trucks that I'm

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Speaker 3: talking about have standard equipment. It's the really specialist equipment

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Speaker 3: that we're talking about about that. So there would be

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Speaker 3: extra chains for snow conditions on rescue pumps. There's some

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Speaker 3: extra lifting equipment for those that are located in train

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Speaker 3: areas where we've got cargo that help lift trucks if

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Speaker 3: they go over a car. So those twenty eight trucks

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Speaker 3: aren't wasted. They're actually going out into community over the

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Speaker 3: next couple of weeks and they'll be well received by

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Speaker 3: those crews. Right.

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Speaker 1: And have you managed to fix that situation where you

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Speaker 1: had the firefighter sitting in a tray above a big

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Speaker 1: fire and they couldn't get down because the ladder had

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Speaker 1: broken or something like that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, what we found with that is the firefighters did

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Speaker 3: an amazing job in using their may day call to

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Speaker 3: say that they had a problem, and we went through

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Speaker 3: our normal procedures.

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Speaker 2: And we've just spent twelve million.

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Speaker 3: Dollars on five new aerials that are currently being made

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Speaker 3: in Wellington and in Brisbane and they'll be delivered this

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Speaker 3: financial year, so you know, our firefighters will have twelve

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Speaker 3: million dollars worth of aerials in their hands by the

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Speaker 3: end of this financial.

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Speaker 1: They're not going to get stuck up in the bucket

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Speaker 1: above a fire again.

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Speaker 3: No, and keeping in mind they're complex pieces of equipment, Heather,

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Speaker 3: that's why we've got all those procedures in place because

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Speaker 3: things can go wrong.

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Speaker 1: With Megan, did I just hear that you guys that

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Speaker 1: your firefighters going on strike as well in a couple

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Speaker 1: of weeks.

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Speaker 2: They have given us notice today and we'll still go,

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Speaker 2: isn't it. Yeah, it is.

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Speaker 3: We've been in negotiations with the union for twelve months.

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Speaker 3: In September when we were bargaining, we indicated that next

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Speaker 3: week we'd be bringing.

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Speaker 2: Back a revised settlement.

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Speaker 3: So we're a little disappointed that notices come in today,

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Speaker 3: but we'll work through it and to me, we need

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Speaker 3: to get a resolution so our firefighters can get on

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Speaker 3: with their job and do the best thing that they

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Speaker 3: can do.

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Speaker 1: All right, Meghan, Hey, thanks for your time. Megan Stiffler,

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Speaker 1: the FENNS Deputy National Commander. For more from Hither Duplessy

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Speaker 1: Allen Drave, listen live to news talks it'd be from

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Speaker 1: four pm weekdays, or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio,