Lavington RFS captain Bruce Barnes seeks answers from NSW government for cancer-related compensation

The 62-year-old joined the Lavington Rural Fire Service brigade when he was 16 and has been its captain since 2004.

But he finds himself embroiled in a compensation battle for insurance with the NSW government, having been diagnosed with three forms of cancer in the space of eight years.

A decade into his tenure, Mr Barnes was informed he had bowel cancer, which specialists have directly linked to his firefighting efforts due to prolonged exposure to carcinogens.

Mr Barnes was later diagnosed with a terminal form of cancer in his liver and lungs called EHE, and, to top it all off, scans confirmed he had prostate cancer last year.

Bowel and prostate cancer fall under the Workers Compensation Legislation Amendment (Firefighters) Bill which was passed in 2018 to make Mr Barnes eligible for support.

According to Mr Barnes' solicitor, he is 72 per cent impaired as a result of his cancers and would be entitled to around $630,000 in compensation in most workforces, but that figure is just $220,000 for emergency services personnel.

A government spokesperson said a "suite of benefits" was also included in the compensation, but Mr Barnes is unaware of what that entails.

"It still gets me how they can sit there and say we're heroes for going away in 2019 and they give out medals and cruises and all of this stuff, but then you find out you're not even insured properly," he said.

"These people go and risk their lives to protect the community and when something goes wrong like what happened to me, it's all gone."

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Mr Barnes admitted it's too late for him, but with his wife Kathy, their five children, Kathy's two sisters and her brother-in-law all in the brigade, he feels he owes it to them to ensure they're looked after.

"It will go off its head now, which is something I didn't want to happen," he said.

"I didn't want to go public with it and scare everyone who will think 'what are we doing in the fire brigade? We're not even insured properly'.

"RFS is a hard gig. It's hard to get members and it's hard to keep them.

"I've had other problems over the years and I don't stop until I've proven them wrong or proven myself wrong."

Ms Barnes said if a member of the public was injured at the station, they would receive more compensation than a volunteer firefighter.

"If emergency services did it here, police, paramedics, SES, we would get $220,000 maximum. It doesn't make sense," she said.

Ms Barnes said she had regularly reached out to the NSW Premier, members of state and federal government and the RFS Commissioner for answers.

Albury MP Justin Clancy said he had been working with Mr Barnes and had pushed for the legislation to be amended so volunteers are compensated the same as general workers.

He revealed a Bill was before Parliament to align some of the entitlements.

"Different types of workers are paid under different workers compensation legislation. As a result, their entitlements are different," Mr Clancy said.

"Most NSW workers are paid under the Workers Compensation Act 1987.

"Paid firefighters, police officers and paramedics are also covered under the principal workers compensation legislation, the Workers Compensation Act 1987 as 'exempt workers'.

"Volunteer firefighters like Bruce are covered under the Workers Compensation (Bush Fire, Emergency and Rescue Services) Act 1987.

"Whilst exempt workers and prescribed volunteers have access to more generous entitlements than general NSW workers, unfortunately for Bruce and Kathy, Bruce's level of permanent impairment does not receive the same compensation.

"This is a particular concern for me, as I know first-hand of Bruce and Kathy's dedication over many years to the RFS.

"I have on a number of occasions made representation on their behalf. This has also included seeking an ex-gratia payment from the RFS to support Bruce.

"I have also put the case that legislation should be amended to allow greater alignment between workers compensation entitlements for volunteers with those available in the general workers compensation scheme."

NSW RFS Commissioner Rob Rogers said he'd contacted the NSW state government insurer.

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