Queenstown Volunteer Fire Brigade secretary Katherine Lamont launched a petition in March - since signed by 36,549 people - that called for the 12,000-odd volunteer firefighters across the country to have the same ACC coverage as their 1800 paid counterparts.
While volunteers made up 86% of the Fire and Emergency New Zealand (Fenz) workforce, carried the same risks and responsibilities and completed the same core training as their paid counterparts, they were excluded from full ACC provisions, she said.
Parliament’s education and workforce committee released its report on the petition this week.
It showed ACC last year projected the cost of expanding coverage to volunteer firefighters at $244,533 each year.
It was, by the Crown entity’s own admission, "a fairly minor cost increase".
However, concerns over where the funding would come from, and its precedent-setting nature, meant the committee’s recommendation was for the House to "take note" of its report.
"While we are sympathetic to the petitioner’s arguments, we are concerned about the precedent that extending ACC cover to volunteer firefighters might set," the report said.
"We do not consider it practical for all types of volunteers to be provided with ACC workplace coverage."
Mrs Lamont was spurred into action after Kingston’s chief fire officer Peter Ottley had to step down from his volunteer role, and take time off his paid employment, after being diagnosed with PTSD, triggered by a fatal crash between a bus and a car last year.
He was not eligible for ACC cover because his trauma stemmed from a volunteer role.
Because volunteer firefighters were formally recognised as personnel under the Fenz Act, which came into force on July 1, 2017, ACC should be in alignment, Mrs Lamont said.
Fenz said volunteers not having access to ACC was an "ongoing concern and priority" and it was "ready to work with any agency to improve support for its firefighters".
But ACC and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment said in a joint submission to the committee there was "no way" to provide coverage to volunteer firefighters without providing it to others in similar roles, such as Surf Lifesaving, Coastguard, LandSAR and Hato Hone St John.
"They are concerned that there would be pressure to gradually expand ACC to cover all types of volunteers," the report said.
The organisations suggested Fenz instead might like to consider enhancing the support it offers, buy private insurance for its volunteers or investigate a "bespoke scheme", such as the Veterans’ Support Scheme.
The Green Party slammed that idea, telling the committee Fenz faced a reduced levy income from next year and had been directed by the government to cut a further $60 million by 2029.
"The health, safety and wellbeing of all firefighters called to the frontline should be a top priority for the government, not the private sector."
Meanwhile, the Labour Party told the committee it was "pleased to support the petitioner and to have a member’s Bill in the ballot that would address this very important gap in the law and provide justice for volunteer firefighters injured at work".
Mrs Lamont said the report validated the push for equity and was a "monumental step forward from where we were 12 months ago, when this conversation wasn’t even on the table".
