If insurance companies profit when there aren't fires;.
And they save money when fire fighters protect homes and assets from going up in smoke.
Then why don't insurance companies pay the firefighters out of their profits,
Or else we just let those 'covered' properties burn?
Why risk the lives of fire fighters to save property that's already covered by insurance?
i.e. why risk the lives of fire-fighters for nothing?
It actually benefits the nation more to let it burn, because the rebuild paid for by the insurance payout will create jobs.

- And yes I think they should be paid, when say their efforts go above and beyond whats expected from a volunteer, or any significant length of time, that impacts them financially.

Way too much shirking of responsibility going on here ! If you're the cause of the problem, YOU fix it ! Stop demanding others putting in the effort to help solve the problem YOU created !
If help is required YOU jump in, don't bleat for Govt to do "something".
Don't be so bloody Australian !

They most definitely should be compensated. And I think fully compensated. I think Soot 'Beam up me Scotty' Morrison would agree.

Soot has 11 billion dollars stuck away in his election slush fund to buy votes with at the next election which could be used to compensate the fire fighters.

Come on Soot, have a heart! Everything is not just all about you now.

Armchair Critic: Insurance companies cannot produce money out of thin air!
If the insurance companies had to cover the whole cost of the bushfire effort (including paying for the fighters) then for them to remain viable businesses fire coverage premiums would have to rise. Is this what you intended with your idea or is it something you didn't account for?

To put the cost onto the insurers would push up the premiums and as
a result more would not be insured. See the feedback loop ?

Compensation of volunteer firefighters is a side issue which just pulls attention away from the main issue, Green Labor's culpability for removing laws and regulations on undergrowth removal and other fire mitigation. The idea has never been put up before; and if would be as useless as blaming climate change for the fires.

And, it doesn't matter what anyone here thinks about the rights or wrongs of compensation for firefighters: the decision will be made by politicians without any reference to us.