[asagaai]

Volunteer firefighters volunteered and the model was based on climate and fire conditions that involved generally a specific and discrete period commitment in the past.

For whatever reason- the fires Australia is experiencing in terms of spread nationally, duration and intensity is unprecedented.

And it is only going to get worse with increasing population around the world, increased meat demands and deforestation to provide crop cultivation to produce livestock feed- cutting down forests effects climate. And that is putting aside issues of energy and carbon etc etc.

The problem and elephant in the room for the world is human population growth that is denuding the plant of its lungs and temperature control.

As a consequence of this human growth explosion and impact on the planet, the old model of volunteer firefighter of past just does not fit to today.

I personally think if you have a self employed businessperson/employee that is foregoing income, after 2 weeks in the field the government should pay each member a sum per week to cover their life expenses like mortgages, utilities, food on table, to allow their dependant families to survive and hell- it should be much much more than centrelink benefits.

Something like $800.00 per week so they can cover mortgage, food for dependents and utilities.

If Australia cannot do this with the wealth that this country generates, something is very wrong. It cannot be right that the military spend cannot allow a 0.5% deduction etc and that be used for our National Security in terms of payments to firefighters who will increasingly be months in the field.