By JESSE GRAHAM
WORKPLACE compensation paid to interstate firefighters should also be available to their Victorian counterparts, according to Healesville volunteer firefighter Damien Beeby.
The CFA volunteer is pushing a campaign to ease cancer compensation procedures for volunteer and career firefighters across the state.
Next month a motion to debate the Accident Compensation Legislation (Fair Protection for Firefighters) Bill 2011 will be heard in the Victorian Parliament.
The bill will aim to change the procedures for firefighters seeking workplace compensation for cancers which are believed to be developed from workplace hazards, such as toxic fumes.
Currently, firefighters are only able to receive compensation under the Accident Compensation Act if they can prove a clear link between their workplace and their injuries or disease.
The bill would shift the burden of proof for compensation claims – firefighters who fall ill with one of 12 specific cancers proven to be related to their work over certain time periods would be automatically presumed to have developed their disease as a consequence of their workplace.
For the compensation claims to be knocked back, should the bill be passed, a firefighter’s employer would have to prove that their illness was not caused by their workplace.
This would mean a significantly easier process for cancer stricken fire-fighters, who may find it hard to prove they had come into contact with specific carcinogenic chemicals or fumes.
Mr Beeby, who has worked with Healesville CFA for 20 years, wants the community to get behind the bill.
“It would be nice to know that if I, or one of my colleagues, came down with cancer, that we were looked after,” he said.
“The bill would be accepting the potential risks that we do come into contact with – if we go to a house fire, a car fire or a person burning rubbish, there’s potentially something there that’s going to be nasty.”
Commonwealth employed fire-fighters are already protected by a similar form of legislation.
Greens Member Colleen Hartland said that, due to the fact that firefighters can’t keep track of every chemical they are exposed to, current legislation creates an “artificial barrier” to discriminate against firefighters making claims.
A spokesperson for Premier Denis Napthine said that the Victorian Government was working with the Victoria Workcover Authority to assist fire-fighters with their cancer claims by providing greater access to information.
However, a letter from Monash University researchers Associate Professor Deborah Glass and Professor Malcolm Sims to Ms Hartland said that there are concerns about their study into increased cancer and disease rates in firefighters holding the legislation back.
Ms Glass and Mr Sims wrote in their letter on 29 May that there is “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”.
“Our study is a prospective study, which will present its first report, but may well take several years to deliver definitive findings about exposure to specific carcinogens,” they wrote.
“There will always be one more study on the horizon, and waiting for more research findings, especially in this situation, where the results of many cancer studies in firefighters are already available, will lead to unacceptable delays, possibly extending into years.”
Peter Beaton from the Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria said the motion and the bill would require support from the Coalition to pass.
Mr Beeby said the issue goes beyond political parties and is about supporting those who help to protect others.
“It’s not something about politics – it’s about the health and wellbeing of firefighters,” he said.
“At the end of the day, we don’t protect people based on their political orientation, we just protect the community.”
Around 400 firefighters will attend parliament on 21 August to witness the motion and debate.
