By EMMA SUN
HILLS firefighters are calling on the State Government to support fairer compensation for firefighters who get cancer after fighting on the frontline.
MPs last month voted against the proposed presumptive legislation, which aims to provide a simpler path to compensation for volunteer and career firefighters, taking the burden of proof away from the firefighter.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria District 13 president and former Ferntree Gully Fire Brigade captain Bill Watson said it was very difficult for firefighters to actually prove that they had got a cancer attributed to firefighting when it might have happened more than 15 years ago.
“There is evidence that there are number of specific cancers that are associated to firefighting duties but at the moment, if someone contracted one of the 12 cancers they have to prove their case,” he said.
“By reversing onus of proof, the other agency has to prove that it didn’t happen.
“It’s not asking for money, not asking for things that aren’t reasonable, it’s just a fairer way of doing business in these circumstances.
“We can’t go back 15 or 20 years – some people are doing 200 to 300 calls per year, how can they search all that and find out what chemical is involved in a particular incident, it’s impossible.”
Former Knox Group Officer Allan Small said presumptive legislation had already been accepted by the Federal Government, and all other states had either accepted or were moving through the process of accepting it.
He said the State Government needed to realise the legislation was not about milking money.
“I don’t see there’s going to be a big scramble of claims, it’s about if you get sick and you happen to have one of those cancers, you’ll be taken care of, as will your family,” he said.
Knox Group Officer and former Montrose Fire Brigade captain Rob Earney expressed his disappointment that Victoria was falling behind.
“We align ourselves with the United Firefighters Union in this stand of an expectation that we will be supported in the event that we become sick,”
“The other slap in the face as far as we’re concerned is there are some fire services in some states where their governments have supported presumptive legislation and not here in Victoria, that’s a double whammy.”
All three agreed with no safety net for firefighters, there could be a reduction in volunteerism in the future.
Mr Small said it was certainly a significant concern.
“It has the potential to have a decline in people continuing to volunteer because if they’re not protected, why would you do it,” he said.
“There is actually work done by La Trobe University by Dr Jim McLellan that suggests in the period to the 2020s, volunteerism will very much drop off because of the generation changing and if that’s another impetus to that, it’s certainly not going to do volunteering in Victoria any good at all.”
The trio is urging members of the community to support local firefighters and write to their local MPs, asking the State Government to review its current policy on presumptive legislation to better support Victorian firefighters.
Mr Earney said each person would need to indicate their address or at least the suburb they lived in so their email can be passed on to their local representative.
Any messages of support can be emailed to Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria at vfbv@vfbv.com.au
