Should Australia's volunteer firefighters receive payment?
Introduction to the media issue
Video clip at right: On December 27, 2019, Nine News carried a report on the prime minister Scott Morrison's slow response to calls for volunteer firefighters to receive financial compensation.What they said...
'It's a volunteer organisation and we volunteer…Ongoing payment for volunteers is definitely not a consideration'
Brian McDonough, president of the New South Wales Rural Fire Service Association
'People who are fighting fires, not for days or weeks but for months, still need to put food on the table for their families, still need to pay their rent and mortgages'
Anthony Albanese, leader of the federal Opposition
The issue at a glance
On December 29, 2019, the prime minister, Scott Morrison, announced that New South Wales volunteer firefighters who were self-employed or worked for small employers and who had been fighting fires for ten days or more would be eligible for up to $6000 compensation.
On December 24, 2019, the prime minister had announced that public servants holiday leave would be extended by four weeks or more to allow them to fight fires and he called on large employers to adopt the same practice with their workforces.
These two actions only came after weeks of claims from the prime minister
and others that such payments were not necessary and were not wanted by volunteer firefighters. The issue remains a vexed one with there being no consensus as to whether Australia's volunteer firefighters should automatically receive financial compensation.