New legislation before the Queensland Parliament has highlighted the need for Australia to better protect its firefighters, according to Russell Cain, CEO of LifeInsuranceDirect.com.au.
Mr Cain said that the Queensland Government had recently introduced a Bill to change the Workers Compensation Act, putting in place a qualifying period for professional and volunteer firefighters before they can make a workers compensation cancer claim.
The Liberal National Party has put forward an opposing Bill which would cover all firefighters for 12 cancer conditions, regardless of years of service or the number of fire events attended.
The parliamentary stoush follows a study conducted by Monash University in 2014 which found higher rates of some cancers in firefighters than in the general population.
“Australia has an obligation to ensure that our firefighters, who face greater health risks – sometimes for years after they stop working as firefighters, according to the Monash study – are adequately covered,” Mr Cain said.
He argued that if the Government was unable or unwilling to protect all firefighters via the Workers Compensation Scheme, it should subsidise trauma insurance policies to ensure firefighters are financially protected.
“Surprisingly, our research found that, in general, trauma policies for firefighters are no more expensive and have no more exclusions than other policies held by people working in other occupations, despite the more obvious risks,” Mr Cain said.
