Martin Campbell: Professional Firefighters Union spokesperson on the miscommunication impacting Coromandel rescue mission

Questions have been raised over who deploys helicopters to transport rescue teams as police apologise over a miscommunication. 

A 13-year-old girl was left clinging to a cliff in Coromandel Peninsula's Hahei for hours last year - when police mistakenly thought she was dead.

They refused to foot the bill for a chopper and a rescue crew made a nearly two-hour car journey.

The Professional Firefighters Union's Martin Campbell says there needs to be clarity. 

"In some cases, police are saying it's their call. And Fire and Emergency in the past have made that call. So there is a bit of confusion and misunderstanding."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now as we all head off into far flung corners
of the country, it's an interesting question who has the
final say on whether a helicopter is deployed in an
emergency situation or not. It is a question that the
Professional Firefighters' Union wants settled. After a police refused the
use of a rescue chopper to pick up a teenager

(00:20):
who was stuck on a cliff.

Speaker 2 (00:22):
Now, sadly, her friend had already fallen off this cliff
and died, and police admit that they wrongly thought that
the girl had died too, and thus they declined the
use of a chopper because of the cost. Martin Campbell
is the Professional Firefighters Union Vice president and joins me
this afternoon. Good afternoon, Martin.

Speaker 3 (00:41):
Good afternoon. How's it going very well?

Speaker 1 (00:43):
Thank you, thanks for being with me. Whose job is it, Martin,
to make the call about whether you send a chopper
to rescue someone or not.

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well, unfortunately, that's sort of the sixty thousand dollars question,
so to speak. At the moment, there is a bit
of confusion as to who as who actually is able
to make that call, Who has the statutory authority to
make that call? In some cases, police are saying it's
their call and Foreign Emergency and the past have made
that call. So there's a bit of confusion and misunderstanding it,

(01:14):
I think at the moment.

Speaker 1 (01:15):
So have there been other cases, because we've got this
girl obviously in Hajei, But have there been cases where
the rescue team on the ground says, give us a chopper,
it'll save a life and police has said no.

Speaker 3 (01:28):
Well, I certainly know there has been certainly confusion at
the foreign emergency end about deploying our VENE resources utilizing helicopters.
I know for myself, I've encountered these delays and misunderstandings
as to who has the authority to ask for helicopters,
who's going to have to pay the bill so to
speak for the helicopters, and how do we get our

(01:49):
FIENE resources as quickly as we can to the incidents.

Speaker 1 (01:54):
Because you need a chopper, doesn't matter whether it's a
rescue helicopter or whether it's a police one. You need fence,
you know, you need your firefighters, You need your rescuers,
and a chopper getting their quick as well.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
Most certainly, particularly when the incident is some distance away
from the fire station. The Hahey One obviously is quite
a distance from the Hamilton fire station. The rescues up
here are all out of the Auckland Central Fire Station,
so obviously we would need to be chopping to a
lot of our incidents that are sort of on the
outskirts of Auckland. So getting a helicopter with our firefighters

(02:28):
and their equipment is critical to us getting there quickly. Martin.

Speaker 1 (02:32):
Everyone's about to head out all over the place for
their holidays over summer, and you want to know that
help is going to come as fast as possible as
the situation stands.

Speaker 2 (02:42):
Can we be sure of that?

Speaker 3 (02:45):
I'm not one hundred percent sure at the moment that
we can be sure that we can well not certainly,
not without some sort of delay or confusion. And it's
the lay of confusion that's been felt by the front
line staff. Both I think frontline firefighters and froline police
would would be experiencing these concerns. It's a problem I
think that's being created and needs to be solved by

(03:07):
upper level managements from foreign emergency and police to make
sure there are no delays and New Zealanders are getting
the quickest help as they can.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
And this is not like a union thing, and I
don't mean to be. I'm not just being disparaging of unions,
but you know, sometimes unions can just put the boot
in for the take of it. This is actually you
guys are saying what is You know, you make the
call and you're sitting around tiddling your thumb, saying, what
the hell are they doing up there?

Speaker 3 (03:30):
That's right, that's certainly it's not a union thing. In fact,
the latest Hajay incident I believe was raised by Foreign
Emergency Management themselves, So it's not a union thing. It's
a fends and police thing that needs to be sorted
out as quickly as possible.

Speaker 1 (03:45):
Well, let's hope that is soon for all of our sakes, Martin.
Thank you Martin Campbell as the professional firefighters and your
vice president. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, listen
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