While volunteer firefighters are entitled to compensation if they're injured while on the ground, they otherwise receive very little assistance. Now there are calls for a better deal for exhausted crews who have spent weeks fighting fires across the country.
Leave entitlements, a one-off payment or tax breaks are all ideas that have been floated.
Mick Holton said while the idea of financially compensating volunteers was noble, it would be hard to implement. "It's a challenging one because there are volunteers that tell me that paying volunteers would damage the volunteer ethos," Mr Holton said.Mr Holton said the issue should at least be explored.
And in the interim, he said the first priority of all levels of government should be ensuring volunteers don't have to fork out their own money while battling blazes. "If a volunteer could produce evidence they had spent money on fuel or food, they should be compensated for that.Volunteer firefighting services are managed by the states and territories, and the ABC has been told none of them have raised the issue of compensation with the Commonwealth.
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