Vital dozer and excavator operators fighting fires have gone unpaid for weeks

Emergency Services Minister David Elliott has vowed to personally fast-track long-overdue payments to heavy machinery operators involved in the firefighting effort.

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Rural Fire Service heavy plant contractors have taken out loans and eaten up savings to help fight the bushfires because they haven’t been paid for weeks.

Wauchope man Shane Hoffman’s bill has reached $1.2 million following months of earthmoving work across fire grounds on the mid-north coast.

A bulldozer knocks over a burning tree at Ferndale, near Sassafras, south of Nowra.

He hasn’t taken a day off since the fires flared up, and at the height of the emergency last month he had another 15 men out with heavy machinery, including bulldozers and excavators.

“We want to do the right thing by the country, no one wants to see it burn,” the 43-year-old said. “People are taking out extra overdraft loans, anything they can do to pay the bills.”

Mr Hoffman, who runs a haulage and logging business, said the RFS had paid about one-third of his bill recently after much hassling.

Heavy plant operators are integral to the firefighting effort, from clearing roads for fire crews to moving huge burning logs in the middle of fire grounds.

It is understood the scale of the bushfire crisis has contributed to a backlog of invoices that the RFS has to process.

A bulldozer hurries to reinforce containment lines of an out-of-control bushfire at Whiteman Creek west of Grafton earlier this year.

When The Sunday Telegraph raised the issue with Emergency Services Minister David Elliott yesterday, his office began contacting contractors to fast-track outstanding payments.

One bulldozer operator, who asked not to be identified but worked on the Wollombi fire, said he had been through his personal savings and taken out a $10,000 loan to cover expenses, including fuel.

“Come January, we will have no money left,” he said.

Another operator said he was owed more than $100,000.