Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden said this week she was shocked by how poorly the government had overseen Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ). She told a parliamentary committee that the Department of Internal Affairs — the government department that is supposed to monitor FENZ — had done a bad job of it.

But van Velden has another problem too. At the same time, she announced a major shake-up of the fire and emergency levy — a fee that pays for FENZ and is collected through property insurance. She says the levy is unfair.

The levy mainly comes from property insurance companies and their customers. Property owners who run businesses have complained for years that they pay too much compared to people who own homes. Any change to how the levy works would need a law change and would involve the DIA, the very department van Velden just criticised.

So van Velden has put herself in a tricky spot: she is attacking both FENZ and the government department meant to keep FENZ in check.

These committee hearings are normal in New Zealand politics. Ministers and departments go before a parliamentary committee to answer questions. What matters here is that van Velden criticised her own department's past work in a formal setting, on record. That is a statement that carries weight.

Van Velden has said the DIA should have done better at watching over FENZ. By saying that, she has set a benchmark. People will now judge whether her own handling of the fire and emergency levy — if the reform goes ahead — actually lives up to what she said should have been done.

FENZ was formed in 2017 when the New Zealand Fire Service, the Rural Fire Authority, and dozens of volunteer fire groups merged. Since then, people have asked questions about how much FENZ costs. The restructure van Velden criticised is part of that longer story of problems since the merger.

Van Velden has not said yet what exactly the levy reform will look like or when it will happen. Will it change how much businesses pay versus households? Will it cap the fee? Will it work in a completely different way? Those details matter, because they decide whether the reform really helps or just shifts the burden around.

For now, one thing is clear: van Velden has told both FENZ and the DIA that things need to change, and she said it in front of a parliamentary committee. Whether her reform actually makes the levy fairer or not is something people will want to know.