The Green Party has announced a new Member's Bill that would grant eligible professional and volunteer Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) firefighters presumptive occupational cancer cover.
"We trust firefighters with our lives and livelihoods. This Green Party Bill will make sure that firefighters with cancers likely to be caused by their jobs are also supported and protected when they need it," says Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick.
"This Bill will mean our firefighters can seek immediate medical intervention without the burden of paperwork or the distress of how they will continue to provide for themselves and their whānau."
Under the current settings, FENZ firefighters who develop cancer linked to carcinogens they are regularly exposed to as a result of their occupation must prove to ACC that their cancer is a result of their work as a firefighter.
Green Party MP Mike Davidson, who developed the Bill, says, "The biggest killer of our firefighters isn't the fires they are trained to fight; it's the occupational cancer they develop long after the fire is out."
"After getting the diagnosis nobody ever wants to receive, our firefighters must spend their time compiling a dossier of evidence and trawling through their work history instead of focusing on their health and family."
The Member's Bill covers 21 named cancers that international research links to the carcinogenic hazards firefighters are exposed to.
"This Bill will bring us more in line with our international friends. Presumptive occupational cancer cover for firefighters is already law in Australia, Canada and much of the United States. It's long overdue for us to protect our firefighters in the same way," says Davidson.
The announcement was made at the Pitt Street Fire Station in Auckland Central with the full support of, and input from, the New Zealand Professional Firefighters Union (NZPFU).
"Firefighters put their quality and quantity of life on the line every time they respond. Occupational cancer is the biggest killer of firefighters," says NZPFU National Secretary Wattie Watson.
"This Bill will recognise those cancers so that firefighters can access the treatment and compensation as they would for any other work-related injury or illness. This is a historic event that will help firefighters and their families at their greatest time of need. Firefighters protect us, this Bill will help protect them."
The Green Party is also seeking the support of non-executive Members so the Bill can skip the ballot and go straight onto the Order Paper. That requires 61 MPs (excluding Ministers and Parliamentary Under-Secretaries) to publicly support it.
Davidson says, "Our firefighters are already overworked and underpaid performing a job that keeps our communities safe. The Greens believe that we can, and we should, show our firefighters that we value the sacrifice they and their families make every time they are called out to attend a live fire emergency."
"We call on all eligible Members of Parliament to get in behind this Bill. Show that you support our firefighters and that you appreciate that their lives are put on the line each day. All it takes is a five-minute email to the Clerk of the House. That's faster than the eight-minute structure fire response target our firefighters work to."
"This is not an astronomical ask. We know firefighters are at a much higher risk of developing cancer as a result of their work fighting fires, and the Greens believe the bare minimum to support firefighters suffering with cancer is to ensure ACC support is freely and automatically available to them. My Bill takes us one step closer to making that a reality," says Davidson.