The first Citizens Initiated Referendum was held in New Zealand on , based on the question: <blockquote> Should the number of professional firefighters employed full time in the New Zealand Fire Service be reduced below the number employed on 1 January 1995? </blockquote>
The referendum returned an extremely low voter turnout, with less than 27% of enrolled voters casting a vote.
The referendum was rejected with a huge margin, but career firefighter numbers were reduced regardless. There were 1819 career firefighters on 1 January 1995, 1573 in 1998 and 1702 in 2009.