World-leading cancer compensation list for Australian firefighters comes into force

The former athlete was never in line for a desk job, so it is not hard to see how the camaraderie, flexibility and problem-solving nature of firefighting just works for her. After 12 years in ACT Fire and Rescue, every day is still different, and on good days lives are saved.

But the prospect of fresh air is another thing.

The daily risk of toxins and hazardous materials from modern fires makes the Canberra station leader and her colleagues vulnerable down the line.

"We are exposed," Ms Judd told The Canberra Times. "Fires are what we do and it's that smoke that we're exposed to every day, potentially, that the build up of that, the long-term effects of that, is what eventually causes a cancer.

"Oh, along with working shifts. That's not good. That's been proven as well."

A new amendment regulation, which comes into effect on Monday, gives Australian firefighters world-leading bureaucratic backing when it comes to cancer.

As part of independent ACT senator David Pocock's negotiations with Albanese government on the just-passed industrial relations reform, eight new cancers, including cervical and ovarian cancers, have been added to the list covering firefighters for workers' compensation.

Senator Pocock initially negotiated for the ACT, however Workplace Relations Minister Tony Burke will expand the plans nationally in an announcement on Monday.

The other newly-prescribed cancers are primary site lung, skin, penile, pancreatic and thyroid cancer and malignant mesothelioma.

"This places Australia ahead of the rest of the world in the recognition that firefighting causes cancer," the National Secretary of the United Firefighters Union, Greg McConville said.

"It builds on the announcement of the World Health Organisation in July this year that firefighting is an occupation that causes cancer and it recognises for the first time female reproductive cancers.

"That's a first for Australia and it makes us only the second country in the world to do that behind Canada."

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Ms Judd is one of about 20 female firefighters in the ACT. The workers' compensation list now emphasises risk over the cruel evidence of waiting for female firefighters to die of cancer.

"There's not enough women in firefighting. We haven't been in firefighting for long enough to develop any data, or sort of any science," she explained. "Whereas they've done that with all the other cancers. They've got the science to sort of back up the fact that firefighting, as an occupation, is the cause of getting those cancers.

"So they've added those female reproductive cancers under the assumption that if we would get them, that it is because of firefighting."

The amendments to the Safety, Rehabilitation and Compensation Regulations 2019 expands the list of prescribed cancers to 20 in total. Previously, firefighters could face lengthy claims processes and bureaucracy in a bid to secure fair compensation.

"We've already seen our colleagues getting sick. And unfortunately, some have died from cancer and the families are sort of left high and dry in terms of dealing with that financially," Ms Judd said.

"So to know that workers compensation can be paid out if required is really reassuring."

Mr McConville said firefighters in the modern age are exposed to thousands of toxins from plastics, fabrics and electronics. Some studies have shown disturbing changes to firefighters' DNA after just three years on the job, and he cites a Polish study released a month ago into lithium ion battery fires.

"It showed that, in a controlled burn of a lithium ion battery, a firefighter was exposed to dermal absorption of cobalt 24 times the safe exposure level," he said. "What that means is that these chemicals go through firefighting clothing because it must necessarily breathe and is absorbed by the firefighter's skin and that's just one study.

"And that the key thing about this shift is that it recognises that we can no longer wait for people to die for something to be proven to be carcinogenic."

Mr Burke said Australian firefighters deserve the improved access to compensation.

"Every time a firefighter responds to a call, they know the risk but they go out there anyway," the minister said in a statement.

"Their sacrifices should be paid back with fair compensation, not with years of battling with the system to get the health care they deserve.

"These changes mean that firefighters in the commonwealth jurisdiction who contract these cancers can focus on their treatment and recovery."