Pakuranga Burns.
Where are the Firefighters when you need them?
Aah!
Watch out!
You might get what you're after
Cool, babies
Strange but not a stranger
I'm an ordinary guy
Burning down the house!
Songwriters: David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Jerry Harrison, Tina Weymouth.
If you think the North Shore of Auckland is National territory, you’d be right, and so too is East Auckland, except they also got an extra dose of pseudo Christianity to go with being blue through and through.
It’s the realm of MPs like Christopher Luxon, although he prefers his homes in Remuera and on Waiheke, and no doubt in Hawaii and various other places, but once in a while, he turns up to thank the locals for casting their votes for him by marching in an ANZAC ceremony or for photo ops at the Santa parade.
You’ve got Brooke van Velden to the west and Simeon Brown to the north, and together the National Party and ACT sell a promise of cuts in taxes to be paid for by cuts to public services, and the fair citizens of East Auckland lap it up. Nom, nom, nom.
Which is all well and good until the burning stuff hits the fan and someone needs to dial 111. As happened this afternoon, when a fire in Pakuranga broke out at the same time as a one-hour strike by firefighters demanding better conditions. At which point, no doubt, many forgot their social contract of tax cuts for service cuts and asked where the bloody hell that firetruck was.
From Stuff:
A large fire sent smoke billowing from a business in East Auckland on Friday afternoon while professional firefighters stopped work as part of ongoing industrial action.
Fire and Emergency NZ (Fenz) bosses have blamed the strike action for delays responding to the blaze, while the union said Fenz was meant to have planned for contingencies.
Pakuranga MP Simeon Brown stomped his feet and complained, moving some who were still in the Christmas Spirit to proclaim, “He’s an angry little elf!”
Simeon is “furious that the union is using this incident for political gain,” as he posts about it on social media - a great and rather hypocritical response from the local MP.
Others wondered why Simeon hadn’t brought his trusty bag of magic dirt, guaranteed to resolve any emergency. Couldn’t he throw some of it on the flames? Had the Minister lost faith in the power of the bag?
Brooke van Velden, who had perhaps done more in 2025 than anyone to undermine the pay and conditions of hardworking essential workers, also had a massive moan, entirely missing the point regarding her own culpability in the breakdown of relations between workers and this government.
Before the embers were cold, Fenz decided to put the boot into the firefighters and the union as well, posting:
No doubt many firefighters are feeling awful seeing this happen, just as medical professionals didn’t take their strike action lightly. I can’t imagine they appreciate seeing their employer fail to back them.
New Zealand Professional Fire Union secretary Wattie Watson said, “That’s a really poor inditement on their priorities. I would have thought while that fire was burning and we were on strike, all of their energies, all of their management, all of their resources were focused on their response and the necessary supportive response to that fire, not media to try and bash the firefighters that are on strike.”
The union’s vice president, Martin Campbell, told the NZ Herald Fenz’s comments were “disgusting”, adding:
“To be frank, it’s incredibly disappointing that Fire and Emergency are blaming firefighters and 111 emergency dispatchers for their failures to actually present a fair and reasonable offer for over almost two years now to the membership, and have allowed the situation to drag on to the state that, unfortunately, today’s terrible event has occurred.”
I have tremendous sympathy for those affected by this fire, the business owners and anyone injured. It is awful to see the impact on these people, but MPs like Simeon Brown and Brooke van Velden are absolutely taking the piss with their finger-pointing at firefighters. If they want to ensure the community remains as safe as possible, they need to fund the service properly so workers can do their jobs with reliable equipment.
I do not blame firefighters for striking; in fact, they have acted responsibly, only striking for an hour at a time in desperation at an intransigent government that won’t do what is needed because they’re prioritising making landlords wealthier over funding essential services.
If you want someone to blame, then I’d go with a government that continues to refuse to negotiate with the people we rely on, and quite frankly, the people who voted for them.
If a community votes for people who won’t fund services, there should be no room to complain when they aren’t available. It’s like blowing the insurance payments on something you don’t need and then complaining that you aren’t covered.
We need to support our firefighters, so they can look after us. Government Ministers pointing fingers at emergency workers is most certainly not the answer.
To end today, music doesn’t get much better than this - Talking Heads with Burning Down The House. “Who got a match?”
Great newsletter Nick.
It amazes me these idiot politicians can't see the hypocrisy of their statements.
While this fire is absolutely awful, it's appalling by both Simeon Brown and Brooke van Velden to come out on social media and express their anger considering this government and FENZ won't pay our firefighters or provide adequate equitment and resources.
Our firefighters and all our public service workers deserve better.
Simeon is getting slammed on his facebook post. But he probably doesn’t read the comments. Shame.