Tauranga-based NZ First MP Clayton Mitchell is challenging Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne's mishandling of the Christchurch fires, saying his proposal to merge urban and rural fire is like a cowboy 'shooting from the hip.”

'He knows the proposed amalgamation of urban and rural fire services has already been a resounding failure overseas,” says Clayton, who is NZ First's internal affairs spokesman.

He believes the flawed funding model could spell disaster for Civil Defence response teams on the ground.

'Mr Dunne, who has only just presented his Fire Service amalgamation legislation to parliament, now wants to merge Civil Defence into the mix as well and have the new body lead in all disasters.

'So if he knew Civil Defence has been dogged with problems, why wait eight years as Minister before any attempt to address it?

'In eight years National has failed to turn Civil Defence into a professional, slick organisation with regional strength - but Mr Dunne now has the audacity to claim he has the solution.

'Mr Dunne and National should take full responsibility, particularly as they made a big deal of moving civil defence to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in in 2014.

'This was intended to improve emergency management arrangements – clearly Peter Dunne thinks that this hasn't worked. Mr Dunne's new suggestion is poorly thought through.”

The Port Hills fires burned for days last week, and resulted in the death of one of the firefighting helicopter pilots and the destruction of several homes. Hundreds of people were ordered out of their homes by authorities.

A state of emergency was declared after the fires had been burning for 48 hours, in a move that has been questioned by Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee.

The fires burned across the boundaries of Christchurch City and Selwyn District, which is why the state of emergency was declared jointly by Christchurch City mayor Lianne Dalziel and Selwyn District Mayor Sam Broughton.

Questions are now being asked about how long it took them to make the decision, and could a single authority have done it more quickly.

The civil defence minister had the power to declare an emergency himself, as did the wider-area Civil Defence Emergency Management Group, but they did not do so. The Selwyn Rural Fire Authority was the lead agency in fighting the fires.