[Greens-Media] No Excuse for Delays on Firefighters’ Futures

[Franks, Office]

Greens’ Emergency Services and Volunteers spokesperson Tammy Franks has slammed the Weatherill Government’s delaying tactics in regards to the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Protection for Firefighters) Amendment Bill that has passed the through the State’s Upper House with unanimous support – except for ALP–elected members.
 “This is an extremely important reform for the state’s MFS firefighters and CFS volunteers,” Ms Franks said.
“The Weatherill Government has argued to delay passage of this bill and deny volunteer firefighters the right to be covered by workers’ compensation should they contract one of twelve specified work-related cancers in the course of their work.
 “The Government had cited the need to await the results from an ongoing Australian study currently underway at Monash University before proceeding to include volunteers in the compensation scheme.
“The authors of the study however have advised they are concerned that their work is being used as an excuse to ‘unacceptably delay’ presumptive legislation – given ‘the already good evidence from a very large number of previous human studies that work as a firefighter is associated with an increased risk of several types [of] cancer. Given the large number of studies already undertaken in firefighters and the positive associations for increase in several types of cancer, the results of one or more future studies, including our study, are very unlikely to change the overall conclusions of increased cancer risk among firefighters…’
“The Greens believe, and the Monash study authors concur that: ‘in the course of firefighting, volunteer firefighters might be expected to have exposure [to carcinogens] similar to those of career firefighters’ – and that is why the Greens’ Bill provides for compensation for both career and volunteer firefighters.
“Put simply, carcinogens don’t discriminate and nor should we. The state’s 13,500 CFS volunteers deserve the same protections given to their paid colleagues in recognition of the risks they face at literally thousands of incidents each year, equating to more than 200,000 hours of service.
“The government’s strategy to procrastinate until the release of the Monash study in 2014 has been blown out of the water by the response from University that ‘[Their] strong view is that decisions about compensation processes should be made on the basis of the available scientific evidence at the time’.
“The jury is now firmly in. Firefighters who meet service requirements who contract one of the 12 specified cancers scientifically linked with their work can, should and must be compensated,” Ms Franks concluded.
The Tasmanian Government recently tabled a compensation bill to cover paid and volunteer firefighters in that state, while a Federal Fair Protection for Firefighters Bill introduced by Greens’ MP Adam Bandt was passed in November 2011. The Act predominantly covers firefighters in the territories.

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