OPINION
Victoria O’Brien
The new Firearms Safety Authority (“FSA”), a unit recently set up within the NZ Police to administer civilian firearms ownership in NZ, has revealed it will be spending $500k just on marketing and advertising in the year to June 2024, while new branded uniforms are also expected. The total for salary & wages alone is expected to be almost $50m, up 70% from the total that the NZ Police spent in the year to June 2021 while the number of licenced firearms owners has fallen.
The FSA was launched as part of legislative changes to the Arms Act and has been touted as being more efficient to be run within the NZ Police than as an independent body.
Brand Spend Up
In an OIA response to The Daily Examiner, the FSA wrote that it:
- Spent $41k on “brand and logo development” in the year to June 2023, using consultants;
- Now has a full-time “Senior Brand and Channels Advisor” being paid around $100k just to maintain and continue to develop the FSA brand;
- Expects to continue to “evolve” its brand;
- That an additional cost for this brand development is possible if a “specialist in Maori design” is required;
- Has budgeted for $100k for branded work uniforms for some staff;
- Has spent $10k on branded stationery with the budget tripling in the current year.
A total of $413k was spent on Marketing and Advertising in the year to June, including the cost of marketing the new universal firearms registry. This total is expected to increase to $500k in the current year to June 2024.
The President of the Antique Arms Association, Myles Chandler responded,
“I think that the firearms safety authority has a lot of other items that need money spent on them and we see the spend on branding as very wasteful… ”
Mr Chandler was incredulous that a full-time Brand Advisor was required for a market (i.e. NZ firearms licence holders) that is legislated to use the FSA.
There was no explanation in the OIA response as to why the FSA needed a brand separate from the NZ Police for a legislated user base, nor why such a brand would require ongoing spend & change. The response also did not elaborate on why a specialist in Maori design might be required at additional cost.
COLFO (Council of Licenced Firearms Owners) spokesperson Hugh Devereaux-Mack said,
“It’s not surprising that we see inflated or ballooning cost in this agency that does not reduce crime and it is an indication of how the registry will be run. NZers should be asking if they are getting value for money and are they safer for this investment.”
The prospect of branded uniforms for licencing staff visiting licence applicants & renewals in particular, is concerning to firearms licence holders that The Daily Examiner spoke to. They noted that this would be a further risk to themselves and their families, as their homes could be clearly marked by such uniformed visits.
With recent and ongoing breaches by the NZ Police of the security of licence holders’ information, it would appear their concerns are founded in experience. They also questioned if the increase in expenditure would be far better spent on targeting criminals and actual crime, instead of a ballooning bureaucracy that is more focused on branding & appearance.
Agency Costs Swell
The FSA also disclosed that it had 480 Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) staff, a figure which is expected to continue to grow by 14% in the current year to almost 550. Meanwhile, the cost of salaries and wages will more than double from $21.5m in the year to June, to $46.3m in the following year. The FSA response notes these figures do not include the cost of contractors.
In comparison, NZ Police spending on “Arms Act services” for the year to June 2019, i.e. mostly prior to the recent changes to the Arms Act, was around $14m. At that time, the number of firearms licence holders was approximately 248,000. This has since fallen to around 232,000.
At the time of the landmark Thorp “Review of Firearms Control in New Zealand” report in 1997, the number of firearms licence holders was around 206,000 at a cost of $11.1m according to the report.
An experienced business consultant advised The Daily Examiner that staff “on costs” are typically an additional 50% of the cost of salaries & wages. This would place the cost of FSA staff at almost $70m for the year to June 2024. Once again, this would exclude any additional spend on contractors.
This would equate to approximately $54 per licence holder per year in 1997 and is expected to be over $300 in the year to June 2024 assuming the number of licence holders is relatively unchanged. However, a combination of the introduction of lengthy paperwork for applications and renewals of licences, an expected large increase in associated fees and complicated processes, is likely to see the number of firearms licence holders fall, according to community insiders.
The illustration shows how the number of licence holders has remained relatively static while the expense reported by NZ Police increased markedly following legislative changes in 2019. The 2020 expense figure included the cost of administration of prohibited firearms & parts confiscations.
The Minister of Police Ginny Andersen was contacted for comment on how brand development by the FSA reduces & prevents the illegal possession & use of firearms in NZ and why a specialist in Maori design might help with this.
At the time of the publication of this article, the Minister’s response had not been received.
The Daily Examiner notes that the 1997 Thorp Review (page 120) noted a diversion of police resources away from firearms administration to other areas. Over 20 years later, the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the shootings in March 2019 also noted that police resources had been diverted away from licencing to other areas (and recommended a fees increase). In the meanwhile, restrictions on licenced firearms owners have increased, as have fees.
