Final fire service report supports recommendations
VOLUNTEER Fire Brigades Victoria has welcomed the release of the Legislative Council’s Fire Services Bill Select Committee report of the Inquiry into the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Bill 2017 and accompanying recommendations.
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Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria is pleased that many of the recommendations made to the committee in our detailed submission of July 7 have been adopted.
We accept and support all 10 recommendations of the committee and endorse the committee’s recommendation that the government withdraw the Bill or failing it being withdrawn that the Legislative Council of the Parliament should reject the Bill.
If the Bill is withdrawn or defeated, Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria maintains its commitment to continuous improvement in our fire and emergency services.
In our submission we proposed a way forward to the committee to achieve continuous improvement and the framework for incremental reform that will have long lasting, effective and tangible community safety outcomes front and centre, unlike the current Bill.
The first step is to develop a transparent and evidence backed understanding of the problems to be fixed, then independent and robust analysis of any reform proposal to ensure it is a way forward with no pitfalls or unintended consequences so that we end up with a better outcome for all Victorians.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria believes it is critically important that a proper and transparent process of community, agency, volunteer and union engagement and consultation is part of any process in developing and considering reform policy and legislation well before any decisions to proceed are made.
This approach is consistent with recommendations of the committee.
It would ensure reform proposals which do nothing except the creation of angst and argument or worse still, take us backwards as is the case with the current Bill, could be avoided.
In respect to the Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation section of the Bill, it is our very strong view that it should provide for equality of treatment for volunteers and career firefighters.
After forming the view that the proposed legislation was discriminatory towards volunteers we sought a legal opinion from the Honourable Jack Rush QC.
Among other concerns Mr Rush made the following telling comment: “The Bill discriminates against volunteer firefighters, is inequitable to them, has been drafted in a manner that is prejudicial to volunteer firefighters’ entitlements and rights to claim for specified forms of cancer when compared to the claims process created by the Bill for career firefighters for precisely the same cancer conditions.”
We are pleased that the committee has recommended that Part 2 of the current Bill covering Firefighters’ Presumptive Rights Compensation should be reintroduced to Parliament as a stand-alone Bill – and Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria fully supports this approach.
But we will be seeking amendments to the Bill to remove differential treatment between paid staff and volunteers.
Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria
Palliative care aims to provide peace, comfort
THE Liberal Party made a public promise at the weekend to give an additional $140 million over four years to palliative care should the Coalition return to government next year.
It has been welcomed by Palliative Care Victoria (PCV) which is currently petitioning for additional funding.
It is a vital announcement for an ageing population.
About 40,000 Victorians die every year and PCV believes at least a quarter of these don’t get the palliative help they need. This funding will provide that to another 8000 people across the state.
It is support that is not only needed, but wanted.
Palliative care is an extraordinary service for those who have a terminal illness and helps them move with dignity towards their end of life. It helps the patient and their family – physically and emotionally.
It is a respectfully humble service provider in an increasingly flashy medical world.
The word ‘palliative’ itself sounds like another term in a medical dictionary most of us don’t understand.
But what it really means is being there, doing the things that are needed for people who are no longer capable of looking after themselves.
It is a respectful, warm and caring support.
It can involve nurses or doctors visiting a patient’s home to tend to medical and pharmacy needs, or carers to look after bathing and eating requirements or household management. Carers can even stay overnight.
Most importantly, it enables people to stay in the peace, comfort and familiarity of own homes at their end of life.
That is the golden aim.
Simon Ramsay, Member for Western Victoria