Delays for SA firefighters bill

Tammy Franks, the Greens' Emergency Services and Volunteers spokesperson, has criticised South Australia's Weatherill Government's delays in implementing the Workers Rehabilitation and Compensation (Protection for Firefighters) Amendment Bill. The Bill has passed through the State's Upper House with unanimous support, except from elected members.

Ms Franks has called the Bill "an extremely important reform for the state's MFS firefighters and CFS volunteers," however, she has been critical of the government's slow progress, calling it an unacceptable delay.

The Bill allows volunteer firefighters to be covered by workers’ compensation should they contract one of twelve specified work-related cancers in the course of their work. Evidence has suggested that volunteer firefighters are exposed to dangerous carcinogens at similar rates to career firefighters. However, the South Australian government is still waiting on the results from an ongoing Monash University study. 

Ms Franks concluded, “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." 

In Tasmania, the government recently tabled a compensation bill to protect its paid and volunteer firefighters, while a Federal Fair Protection for Firefighters Bill, predominantly concerned with firefighters in the territories, was passed in November 2011 after being introduced by Greens’ MP Adam Bandt.

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