Natural Disaster and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud also said the government was considering new ways to assist unpaid firefighters. Earlier, Nationals MP and Minister for Veterans Darren Chester said he believed volunteer firefighters should be paid the same as professionals when they were forced to fight long-running blazes, which have characterised this year's horror fire season, echoing calls from Labor leader Anthony Albanese. Nationals MP Darren Chester has backed calls for volunteer firefighters to be compensated in severe fire seasons, which has so far not been ruled out by the government. Credit:AAP "On these 'campaign' fires which could take weeks and months to extinguish, it becomes unrealistic to expect volunteers to spend so much time away from their workplace, small business or family farm, without compensation," Mr Chester said on Facebook in a post he stressed was his personal view. "And we need to pay volunteers exactly the same as state government employees for attendance at these long-term bushfire events."

Across Australia, bushfires have burnt out 5 million hectares, including in Mr Chester's Victorian electorate of Gippsland, and killed nine people this season. Mr Chester suggested using "an additional small property-based levy" to pay volunteer firefighters an annual training allowance and daily payment for backburning as well as compensating them for their time during large-scale campaigns. Speaking on ABC News Breakfast on Friday, he floated the idea of using funds from existing state-based fire and emergency services levies. Ethoses don't put food on the table. Anthony Albanese Mr Albanese reiterated his call for volunteer firefighters to be compensated but acknowledged the importance of rural fire services' volunteer ethos. "There's no doubt that people when they expect to volunteer will do so for a day, a week, and many of these people for months," Mr Albanese said. "But ethoses don't put food on the table. They don't pay your mortgage or your rent."

The government has not ruled out the idea of compensating volunteers but has so far deferred to rural fire service bosses who oppose paying volunteers. "Don't do the volunteers a disservice by suggesting that you're going to pay them, because then they're no longer volunteers and that's absolutely the sentiment that I'm getting loud and clear everywhere I go," NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons said on Tuesday. The Prime Minister is in discussions with state and territory leaders about how to compensate volunteer firefighters. Credit:AAP Adam Barnett, chief executive of the Volunteer Fire Brigades Victoria, echoed Mr Fitzsimmons comments, telling The Age and Sydney Morning Herald that he did not support volunteers getting paid. "Volunteers don't want payments for their service," Mr Barnett said. "That's why it's so important for the state to build a large network of volunteers for surge capacity."

During the 2009 Victorian bushfires royal commission, VFBV said in its submission the introduction of a payment would "destroy volunteerism". Mr Barnett said his organisation still stood by those comments, and added volunteers should not be out of pocket for firefighting expenses. Loading Mr Morrison announced on Christmas Eve that public servants would be given extra paid time off to fight fires, and urged companies to do the same, which Mr Chester said showed there was "no clash here between me and the Prime Minister". A number of large companies including Woolworths announced they would extend their emergency leave options to four weeks in the wake of Mr Morrison's announcement.