ACC bid for firefighters rejected – Queenstown petitioner to keep fighting
Queenstown Volunteer Fire Brigade secretary Katherine Lamont vows she will keep fighting after a Parliamentary Select Committee has turned down her bid – supported by a strong national petition, for equal ACC rights for thousands of unpaid volunteer firefighters.
Lamont’s petition gained more than 36,500 signatures, her battle prompted by former Kingston Fire Chief Pete Ottley’s plight, diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after a fatal bus and car crash near Kingston last December.
Lamont says, while really disappointed, she’s undeterred in her battle: “Hell, no! I’m not giving up,” she says.
While the Select Committee’s final report on the issue recommended no changes be made to the current system, Lamont says it validated their fight.
Recommendations have been made to FENZ to improve availability of, and funding around, health services.
“They claim that to extend ACC cover to one group of volunteers would mean they’d have to extend it to all volunteers,” she says. “But they’ve
costed it and it works out to be just $20 a year per each of the current 12,000 volunteer firefighters in New Zealand - $240,000.”
She says any new ruling need only apply to a small percentage of frontline emergency services volunteers who would be at risk. “If there’s a right for firefighters then there’s a right for all emergency volunteers,” she says. “We will keep at it. I’m quite committed to getting this over the line. We knew it was optimistic to expect that we can change ACC in one foul swoop, but we did give it a good shot,” she says. “It’s raised so much more awareness nationally.”
The report acknowledged the workload, risks and lack of support for volunteer firefighters: “There was full empathy, but it lacked action,” Lamont says.
United Fire Brigades Association of NZ chief executive Bill Butzbach says naturally they’re disappointed: “Our volunteers are a strategic asset not a legacy arrangement that should be taken for granted.
“I think the Select Committee has been shortsighted,” he says. “As First Responders our volunteers contribute a critical service to the community which, if paid for, the government couldn’t afford.
“We will also not give up. There’s a Private Members Bill in the ballot so we’re not giving up hope,” Butzbach says. “In the New Year our Fire Brigade volunteers will visit all local MPS in NZ and appeal to them to support this change.”
The contribution of FENZ volunteers would be over $860m a year, if monetised, and people need to feel supported, not concerned the risks are too great, he says. “Then we’re in trouble.”
