Monique Hillenaar joined the Wangaratta Country Fire Authority (CFA) in 2017 but she only found out this week that she would not be covered if she got ovarian cancer on the job.
Victorian volunteer and career firefighters have rights to medical and financial help if they are diagnosed with any of 12 specified cancers.
Testicular and prostate cancer are included but ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers are not.
Ms Hillenaar discovered this when Member for Northern Victoria Tania Maxwell launched a community campaign to add these cancers to firefighters' presumptive rights.
"It was a bit of a shock," Ms Hillenaar said.
"I don't know why they aren't included if [cancers of] the male reproductive system have been included.
"I do think it's discriminatory."
Presumptive rights for firefighters
The Presumptive Rights Compensation Scheme is administered by Worksafe Victoria and means a firefighter who claims compensation for certain cancers doesn't need to prove that firefighting is the cause of their cancer.
Ms Maxwell, who is also a CFA volunteer, moved to amend the scheme to include ovarian, uterine and cervical cancers in October 2021.
But she said she didn't take the issue to a vote after assurances the government would take action and would involve her in the process.
Ms Maxwell also introduced a private member's bill on the topic in the Legislative Council in May 2022.
In July, the International Agency for Research on Cancer and the World Health Organisation (WHO) classified the occupation of firefighting as "carcinogenic to humans".
Ms Maxwell said this motivated her to start the campaign, urging the government to make the change before the November state election.
"We are a state who is encouraging more and more females to be on the backs of trucks," she said.
"Whether they are forest firefighters, volunteers, paid firefighters, we need to ensure that those women doing that role have the same coverage [as men]."
A Victorian government spokesperson said it was working on strengthening the protections provided to workers, including expanding the list of cancers covered under the firefighters' presumptive rights scheme.
The spokesperson specifically mentioned these three "female-based" cancers and "a number of other cancers recently added to similar schemes in North America".
"It's important that we get it right, which is why we're currently in the process of consulting on, and developing, an informed and clear approach to these issues — as we said we'd do late last year," the spokesperson said.
Long-term certainty needed
But Wangaratta CFA deputy group officer Garry Nash said it was hard for him to encourage more women to join the brigade when he knew there was a gap in coverage.
"People need to be able to know if they go out into these danger zones that they are looked after — not coming back and then looking at the fine print and saying, 'Look, sorry, you're excluded there,'" he said.
Mr Nash is frustrated by the delays and draws parallels to the notorious Fiskville CFA training facility.
"Does the government want to see another Fiskville?" he said.
"Do they want to wait until we start losing some really wonderful women that have contributed to our community and looked after our people?
"My answer is 'no'. It's time for them to get off their horse and really do something."
Wangaratta volunteer Peter Leach also said he was concerned about the parallels with the highly publicised case at the Fiskville training centre, where firefighters and their families were exposed to toxic firefighting chemicals over decades.
"I was an instructor at Fiskville, the training college, for five years," Mr Leach said.
"Since then, probably eight or nine of my workmates have died from cancer — over 60-odd people have got cancer — so it's a real thing."
Ms Hillenaar said to stay long-term in firefighting she needed certainty that she would be looked after if she became ill. And she's sure she's not alone in that.
"Now that this issue has come to the forefront and now female firefighters are more aware of it, I think it could make a lot of them question whether to stay involved in the long-run."
