Bushfires: Farmers may not get Scott Morrison’s aid payouts

Farmers fighting fires may miss out on promised compensation unless they can prove they lost income while on the frontline.

Scott Morrison in Canberra on Tuesday. Picture: AAP

Farmers in drought-stricken parts of NSW who have sacrificed their livelihoods to volunteer as firefighters during the bushfire emergency fear an obscure and “insulting” ­caveat in the Prime Minister’s firefighter compensation scheme may lead state bureaucrats to reject “hundreds of applications” for financial aid.

The little-known condition, which Service NSW has omitted from its website, means farmers are able to receive the payment only if they can prove they lost ­income by being away from their properties on the days they were volunteering.

Tim Eyes, 27, a former NSW Young Farming Champion who runs a farm in Yarramalong Valley, north of Sydney, said he was “utterly floored” to find out the rule “even existed”.

“I registered my interest in applying for the payment and was told by Service NSW that I would be rejected,” he told The Australian. “Why did they even tell us we would be compensated? They would have been better off saying nothing. It’s just insulting.”

In December, Scott Morrison announced volunteer firefighters would be eligible to receive $300 per day, in lieu of forfeited wages, if called out to battle blazes for more than 10 days. The compensation package is funded by the federal government and capped at a total of $6000 per firefighter, while the payments will be administered by state governments.

Under the scheme, firefighters can claim compensation only if the hours spent on patrol align with their normal working hours, while farmers would need to prove they lost income between 9am and 5pm on every day they volunteered.

The stringent criteria pertaining to farmers are not publicly available on the NSW government’s Volunteer Firefighter Payment page, and Mr Eyes said he became aware of the exclusions only after calling Service NSW.

“None of that time is eligible for the rebate because I can’t prove I lost farm income if I was fighting fires all through the night,” he said.

“Fires don’t knock off at 5pm and I spent several nights fighting fires until dawn.”

Mr Eyes has been on the frontline of some of the most ferocious bushfires to hit Australia in decades. He has already sacrificed “20 days of work” by volunteering with the Yarramalong Rural Fire Brigade on the NSW central coast and said the “extraordinary extent” of the bushfire crisis meant he had “compromised his livelihood” to help fight fires.

“I want to keep volunteering, but I would effectively have to run my business into the ground,” he said. “The only way as a farmer to be eligible for the volunteering rebate would be to leave my animals unfed while I fight fires. Obviously, that’s not an option.”

Federal Natural Disaster and Emergency Management David Littleproud said he hoped states would show “leniency and compassion when interpreting the reimbursement eligibility, in particular at a time (when) farmers are already doing it tough due to the drought”.

In a statement, Mr Littleproud said the states had been asked to “develop fair methods for determining eligibility”.

However, a spokesperson for NSW Emergency Services Minister David Elliott declined to comment, and said “questions on criteria” would need to go to the federal government.

Brian McDonough, president of the Rural Fire Service Association of NSW, conceded the scheme was “concerning and confusing” for farmers who had volunteered as firefighters and incurred a financial loss as a result.

“Maybe the rules do need to be clearer,” he said. “Still, I don’t think they are too narrow. It’s only fair that volunteers need to provide some evidence of loss of income.”

However, Mr McDonough also argued that firefighters who were seeking compensation may have had “their priorities wrong” if they expected payment in exchange for volunteering.

“To expect payment for volunteering is at odds with the whole ethos of the organisation,” he said. “No one demands (volunteers) go out and jump on a truck.”

A Service NSW spokesperson said details about how NSW volunteers could claim the payment would be “available very soon”.