Volunteer firefighters will receive financial support from the Morrison Government for loss of income, where they have been called out for extended periods of service.
\nRural Fire Service Volunteers in NSW who are self-employed or work for small and medium businesses, and who have been called out for more than 10 days this fire season, will be able to apply for the payments.
\nThe payments will provide for lost income of up to $300 per day up to a total of up to $6,000 per person.
\nThese payments are tax free and will not be means-tested, but are targeted to those most likely to suffer lost income by volunteering for extended periods of time.
\nFor most, this will represent the equivalent of at least 20 days\u2019 emergency leave for employees of small and medium sized businesses and volunteers who are self employed.
\nThe Prime Minister says this will include farmers, small business owners, tradies and contract workers in rural and regional areas who have been hit especially hard by this fire season.
\n\u201cEarlier this week I announced the Federal Government would be providing paid leave for up to four weeks for Commonwealth public servants fighting these devastating fires.
\n“This announcement provides employees of small and medium sized businesses and self employed volunteers with the same level of support.
\n\u201cWe expect larger companies to provide their employees with 20 days of emergency services leave.\u201d
\nThe Australian Government will cover the costs of the grant payments. The NSW Government will administer the payments.
\nOther State and Territory governments are invited to enter into a similar scheme based on their assessment of need and the demands on their volunteer effort from their own fire seasons. Other requests for assistance will be assessed on their merits.
\n\u201cI know that our volunteer firefighters in NSW are doing it tough, especially in rural and regional areas. The season started early and has a long way to go.
\n\u201cThe early and prolonged nature of this fire season has made a call beyond what is typically made on our volunteer fire fighters.
\n\u201cWhile I know RFS volunteers don\u2019t seek payment for their service, I don\u2019t want to see volunteers or their families unable to pay bills, or struggle financially as a result of the selfless contribution they are making.
\n\u201cThis is not about paying volunteers. It is about sustaining our volunteer efforts by protecting them from financial loss. It\u2019s targeted and is the result of a direct request and consultation with the NSW RFS and NSW Government, following the Commonwealth\u2019s announcement of increased emergency services leave for Commonwealth public servants earlier this week.
\n\u201cAs I have said on many occasions \u2013 we take our advice on what is needed and what the priorities are from the organisations running the operational response. That\u2019s what we are doing here.
\n\u201cThe fire chiefs and state and territory governments know they have our full support.
\n\u201cWe\u2019ve already got our Defence Forces providing helicopter search and rescue, ground transport, accommodation, meals and re-fuelling. We\u2019ve boosted our support for water bombing planes and helicopters by $11 million.
\n\u201cDisaster recovery payments of $23 million have also flowed to affected families and businesses with more to come.\u201d
\nThese arrangements have been put in place for this financial year only. Any longer term arrangements will be considered by leaders at the COAG meeting in March, after there has been proper opportunity to assess the most recent fire season.
\nNSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said the NSW Government has a strong record of standing side by side with RFS volunteers, many of whom have been on the front line fighting fires for weeks, and in some cases, months.
\n\u201cWe stand shoulder to shoulder with the brave volunteers who are putting their lives at risk to protect the community,\u201d Ms Berejiklian said.
\n\u201cThe NSW Government already provides unlimited paid leave to all state public service employees who volunteer with the RFS or the other emergency services.
\n\u201cOn top of that, NSW public service employees are able to take rest leave to allow time for their recovery before returning to work.
\n\u201cNSW has committed more than $166 million in additional natural disaster funding this bushfire season over and above our record firefighting budget.
\n\u201cWe are now pleased to provide administrative support to the Commonwealth to compensate our brave volunteers for loss of income.\u201d
\nMinister for Natural Disasters and Emergency Services, David Littleproud, said volunteer firefighters personify the Australian Spirit.
\n\u201cThis is a helping hand from the Federal Government for those giving to their community through an extreme fire season.\u201d
\n\u201cThese payments will help support volunteer fire fighters financially for all the support they\u2019ve provided their communities.\u201d
\nPayments are expected to be available before the end of January 2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Volunteer firefighters will receive financial support from the Morrison Government for loss of income, where they have been called out for extended periods of service. Rural Fire Service Volunteers in NSW who are self-employed or work for small and medium businesses, and who have been called out for more than 10 days this fire season, … Continue reading “NEW PAYMENTS TO SUPPORT NSW VOLUNTEER FIREFIGHTERS”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nswnews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4732"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4732\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4732"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4732"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4732"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}