Scott Morrison planning pay package for volunteer firefighters

Scott Morrison is working on a plan to compensate firefighters during prolonged bushfire events as ADF personnel are deployed.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison with crews from Woodside CFS. Picture: AAP

Scott Morrison is working on a package to compensate volunteer firefighters during prolonged bushfire events as additional Australian Defence Force personnel are deployed to help fight blazes burning across NSW.

The Australian understands the Prime Minister is in discussion with state premiers and territory chief ministers about rolling out financial compensation for unpaid firefighters as a horror fire season enters its third month.

It comes as Veterans Affairs Minister Darren Chester broke ranks with Mr Morrison on Friday, floating the idea that volunteer firefighters should be paid during extreme bushfire events.

Speaking on ABC News on Friday Mr Chester said he had spoken with constituents in his Victorian electorate of Gippsland about the prospect of a payment model for “one-off” fire events.

Veterans Affairs Minister Darren Chester with PM Scott Morrison. Picture: Kym Smith

“Expecting them to take away all those weeks and months to be on the fire grounds, side-by-side with state government employees who are being paid, I think in the longer term we need to have this conversation,” he told ABC News.

Defence Minister Linda Reynolds told reporters on Friday Mr Morrison was acutely aware that volunteers were coming under financial strain.

“It is an issue that the Prime Minister is acutely conscious of and he has been discussing with the premier of NSW and other state and territory leaders,” she told reporters in Perth.

“The Prime Minister understands that sometimes in circumstances like this volunteers go well beyond the leave that they have and come under financial strain.

“So the Prime Minister is looking at this issue further on how we can provide targeted support in these extreme circumstances so that our volunteers get the support they need to keep volunteering.”

Mr Morrison is under mounting pressure as fires razed 5 million hectares of bushland, including nearly 1000 homes, and killed nine people.

On Friday he announced the deployment of specialist ADF personnel to help NSW authorities at fire control centres around the state.

“We’ll continue to do everything in our power to ensure our fireys have the resources and support they need,” Mr Morrison said. “We’ve already got our defence forces providing helicopter search and rescue, ground transport, accommodation, meals and refuelling. We’ve boosted our support for water bombing planes and helicopters by $11 million.”

Mr Chester said that while it was his personal view that volunteer firefighters should be compensated, it was a conversation he believes Mr Morrison was prepared to have.

The Prime Minister on Monday announced commonwealth public service volunteers will get at least four weeks paid leave to fight bushfires under a plan to get more “boots on the ground”.

Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese joined the call for financial assistance for volunteers on Friday, saying the government needed to consider providing some form of compensation.

“This is the best of Australia, people helping out their fellow neighbours, their communities and their cities and towns and regions,” Mr Albanese said. “It is unsustainable, however, to not have an income for a period not of days, not even of weeks but of months. And this is an issue that does have to be addressed.”