2015-12-07
Speech in parliament: The Greens have campaigned for the past five years for firefighters who contract cancer to get proper access to WorkCover insurance. Because volunteer and career firefighters work together side by side in Victoria, we have always fought for equal treatment under the law.
In 2011 federal Greens MP Adam Bandt led the change in laws to ensure that federal firefighters were protected. This reform triggered the consideration of this issue in states across Australia, and the Greens have always taken an active role in this.
Here in Victoria we have been campaigning for law reform on this issue since 2011. We stood side by side with Brian Potter and so many other firefighters to say that such laws must change and that firefighters deserve fair treatment if they contract cancer that is related to their work as firefighters.
Due to the lack of action by the coalition government at the time, in February 2013 the Greens introduced legislation. This legislation was designed to give firefighters access to WorkCover insurance if they contracted certain cancers known to be associated with firefighting and met the qualifying time period, but at every turn the then coalition government blocked it.
Coalition members claimed there was no science that connected the cancers to firefighting duties and made every excuse they could not to support it. There has been a recent campaign on Facebook with many coalition MPs signing a pledge. It is unfortunate that they did not do this in their time in office and bring forward legislation.
The Greens will continue to work on this issue and make sure that there is good and fair legislation for both volunteer and career firefighters.