Volunteer firefighters should receive payment PDF

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Oral presentation about why Australian firefighters should receive payment...

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Volunteer firefighters should receive payment

Statement of intention The aim of my presentation is to encourage my audience to feel empathic and discuss the issue of should firefighting volunteers be paid in Australia. I will take an inclusive approach with my speech by the use of, inclusive language such as “our country” “our firefighters” I will begin my speech by using props to grab the audience’s attention and bring the discussion to life, I will also try to illustrate to my audience how much hard work firefighters do for us, and how poorly they are treated. This will make the audience realize the tragic working conditions, and how hard firefighters work for no pay. This will position the audience in a way that they will feel empathy for the firefighters. In addition, I will also use emotive language during my speech and appeals to fear. This might make the audience feel uncomfortable and feel like they need to act or to be on my side. I will also engage my audience by constantly making them think about decisions using rhetorical questions. I will structure my argument by first giving some background information on firefighting in Australia over the last year. Then I will write my main contention. I will then move onto explaining the issue with firefighters not being paid, interwoven with real-life problems firefighters must face. I will then expand my discussion to explain 3 main issues with volunteer firefighters not being paid, additionally, I will explain how it would be if firefighters were to be paid. By using emotive language such as, “not good enough” “suffer” and “ridiculous” to refer to volunteer firefighters not being paid. I hope to position my audience to regard firefighters not being paid as disagreeable. I also plan on using appeals to fear, such as “our country will burn down” or “firefighters won't have a reason to continue” This will encourage my audience to feel personally threatened by this issue and make them feel like they need to do something about the issue. I also want to address the other side of the argument and make it clear that I do not think that volunteered firefighters should not be paid as well as paid professional firefighters, and to keep in the spirit of Australian volunteerism its fair that firefighters should be paid for compensation for their out of pocket work, or as a reward for their hard work.

Volunteer firefighters should receive payment Intro Over the 2019 fire season fire fighters were exhausted and fatigued during there long hard worked days. Risking their own lives for everyone else, they have been crucial in the fight against Australia’s most unpredicted bushfires that were burning across the country. And they were considered heroes among society. There efforts have sparked a widespread call for compensation for their work. Good morning/afternoon everyone, I do believe that these brave men and women should receive more recognition and compensation from our government, or one day our country may burn its last leaf without those brave heroes to protect it. Is volunteering passed its time with our fire seasons intensifying and lengthening in duration? Can you believe our government is letting the people that protect the country from these natural disasters lose money? Firefighters are going out of pocket to follow their hearts and to do what they love doing. But its not good enough anymore that they are not being rewarded, compensated or have even been given the recognition that they deserve. B1 Over the last year firefighter volunteers have dropped by about 20%, it has dropped from 1015 per 100,000 people to 824. This is due to fire fighters being out of pocket when fighting fires and not receiving the enough recognition and compensation to continue. Payments are necessary in order to ensure that firefighters are treated equitably. During last years fire season Scott Morison gave all volunteer firefighters from NSW up to $6000 for compensation. However, it should have been all states that received this kind of payments and recognition for it to be equitable. At least our government was closed to doing something right for our firefighters. Some of our firefighters had it so hard that they were not earning an income at all during the 6-7-month fire season we had. This is because government workers were paid for leave to fight the fires, nevertheless not everyone is a government worker, farmers, self-employed and small business workers couldn’t afford the pay leave so they took it out of their own pocket to fight the fires. The reason firefighters are still doing what they do is because of the passion they have for it. Quoted by an Australian volunteer firefighter, Payments would be a recognition of what we do, it will not compensate our financial loss. These firefighters spend their summers putting their lives and future health at risk. Yet they will not even have enough money to afford Christmas presents for their kids, yet alone struggle to put food on the table. If Australia doesn’t want to become singed, they should look after the firemen on the fire fronts. B2 2019 was the largest Australian fire recorded, the fire burnt 18.6 million hectares, destroyed over 5,900 buildings, and killed at least 34 people. Fire are now more extreme, extensive and are occurring for longer periods of time. If not for our volunteered firefighters these statistics would have been a lot worse. Australian firefighters were not expecting such an intense fire season. The men and women were fatigued and exhausted. However, to protect families, land, building and lives, they kept on working, risking their own lives for everyone else’s. What is worse is The Australian fire season has

an evident trend toward more extreme fire weather over the last 30 years. Multiple studies have been found that the climate crisis is extending the fire season, this means every year, they are getting worse and longer, the firefighters are having to work more months, and longer more intense days. Yet they do not receive recognition from our government, nor do they receive any payments, which sounds ridiculous to me. If the Australian government payed our firefighters, we would have more firefighters to counter fatigue which is a huge safety issue on the fire fronts. And it would also help the firefighters put food on the table and give them the recognition they are needed. The price to pay a few firefighters is nothing compared to the price of potential lives lost and thousands of homes being burnt. Only if our government would act upon this. It’s either now or it might become too late. B3 Firefighting is cutting into their incomes and limiting their capacity to continue. 90% of fire fighters are volunteers, that means that 90% of firefighters are risking their lives to protect yours but they are going broke in doing so. How can we expect our firefighters to continue doing what they do if they cannot put food on the table and look after their families? We just cannot, and neither should the government. More firefighters are quitting because of the time off work they have with the little to no income. Not even any compensation at all. What should be important to our government is ensuring that firefighters do not suffer economically as a result of their commitment to fighting fires. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Its almost like our government does not care about the well being of the people that protect our country every year from those horrible natural disasters. Our firefighter needs to be looked after more. I am sure firefighters would love to continue, but they can’t be expected to with the way they are treated currently. After working 16hour days, with your life on risk. it should be expected that these firefighters and their families comfortable during these times. If we want firefighters to continue, they are going to need to receive some sort of compensation for their efforts. Rebuttal You may have heard from opposing arguments that fire fighters do not want payments, yes that may be the case, only because they don’t expect payments. Firefighters just want recognition and I believe payments to even just cover their out of pocket expenses would be enough. Conclusion Firefighters work so hard year in year out. They do everything they can to protect Australian civilians, yet they don’t get the recognition from our government they need to feel worth. Fire fires struggle during the fire season, going away from home, working huge days with sleepless nights. Once they return home for charismas they struggle with money. Australian spirit of volunteerism can only go so far, and I believe now that the working conditions for fire fighters deserve payment even if it’s out of pocket compensation. Do you think that the people we called heroes deserve better recognition and compensation for what they are doing for everyone?...