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by Paul Taylor - Lakes Weekly Bulletin

You often hear police officers complain about speeders and drink-drivers, saying it is the emergency services who have to “scrape people off the roads”.

When you actually stop to think about that phrase, about somebody having to deal with the bloody, gruesome damage caused to a human body by hard asphalt, fast-moving metal and glass, it’s beyond grim.

Our emergency services, our cops, paramedics and firefighters, regularly see horrors that would keep most of us awake at night. In the past few months, for instance, there have been more than half-a-dozen fatal crashes on roads around the region. They also attend many other incidents involving death and destruction, including plane crashes, work accidents, medical call outs and suicide attempts. On many call outs, they will save someone’s life, which is a strong motivation to carry on in such a role, but on others, there’s nothing that can be done for the victim, other than to give them some dignity in death, make the scene safe, and investigate. It must all take its toll, yet, with the fire brigade, incredibly we have people who volunteer to serve the community in this way.

You would think the vollies would be given the same support as their paid colleagues, but as we’ve seen from the case of Kingston volunteer fire chief Peter Ottley, they are not. Ottley was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder after attending a fatal accident in December, the latest in a number of harrowing call outs over more than 12 years with the brigade. He stepped down from the brigade and took time off from his regular job. But when he asked ACC for help to cover his wages, his claim was denied. He was told ACC only covers psychological trauma from paid-work related incidents.

While paid firefighters are covered, volunteers are not. That’s just not right.

There’s been so much progress made removing the stigma around mental health problems in recent years, particularly in male-dominated industries like construction, but here, with ACC, it’s clear that barriers and injustice remains. It’s unbelievable to me that the Government hasn’t already stepped in and changed this rule. There can be no ethical argument for the difference. It’s a straight up decision between right and wrong. The cost should not matter (but it will cost a lot less than paying people to do these volunteer roles).

Ottley’s story prompted Queenstown Volunteer Fire Brigade secretary Katherine Lamont to launch a petition calling for change, calling for New Zealand’s 12,000 volunteer firefighters to have the same ACC cover as paid firefighters. Nearly 33,000 people across NZ have now signed it, and it is backed by the United Fire Brigades Association of NZ.
It’s open until next Wednesday, 30 April. So, in this week when sacrifice and service is front of mind, I encourage you all to put your name to it too. Visit petitions.parliament.nz/ (keyword: firefighter)