The federal government has ordered public service heads to give their staff extra time off to fight bushfires as it moves to address calls to do more to support exhausted volunteer firefighters.
"Our volunteer firefighters have been doing backbreaking work for months to keep us safe. They are bone weary and financially suffering," NSW State Leader Jodi McKay said, citing a $1000 payment the Keating government made to firefighters who had been in the field for more than seven days during fires in 1994.
He said the leave would help public servants from metropolitan areas travel to regional areas and relieve locals who had been facing fires for weeks or months on end. Mr Morrison said the government had been in discussions with private companies about providing more leave, but declined to name which ones he had spoken to.The aftermath of the bushfire that went through Dargan in the Blue Mountains, NSW.Both ANZ and Westpac have announced that they will offer uncapped paid leave for employees who volunteer to help emergency services.
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