Regional Development Minister Geoff Brock has today voted against a Parliamentary motion calling on the Weatherill Labor Government to ensure CFS firefighters received equal access to cancer compensation.

Liberal Member for Stuart, Dan van Holst Pellekaan today moved that Parliament:

a) recognises Firefighters’ Cancer Awareness Day; and

b) calls on the Government to guarantee that all firefighters, both professionals and volunteers, have the exact same access to the support if they contract cancer.

Mr Brock voted against this motion, despite speaking strongly against a Bill in Parliament just last year because it did not provide equal access to compensation for CFS volunteers:

“…I will not support the bill in its current form. The main reason is the omission of the CFS…I also have 18 CFS locations across the electorate of Frome. Those 18 CFS locations do exactly the same as our MFS firefighters. They go out there and they fight fires… I believe that this bill, in this current format, is discriminatory. I cannot support it in its format and I would very strongly urge the government to just put three letters into this bill: CFS.” (Hansard, 24/09/13)

“This is an extraordinary backflip from Minister Brock,” said Liberal Member for Stuart Dan van Holst Pellekaan.

“I wonder what those 18 CFS brigades in his electorate of Frome think about Mr Brock’s decision to vote with the Government against a motion supporting equal access to cancer compensation?

“Today is a particularly sad day for regional South Australians with Minister Brock voting against the State Liberals’ Marine Parks Bill and then against the CFS cancer compensation motion within the space of an hour.

“Regional South Australians would be rightly asking why the Minister for Regional Development continues to abandon them on important issues, such as marine parks and CFS cancer compensation.”