Bill Butzbach's guest appearances

Bill Butzbach

Early Edition with Kate Hawkesby

Elon Musk

Kamala Harris

Donald Trump

Julie Smith

Greta Thunberg

John Townsend

Phil Jones

Chris Henry

James Logan

Bernie Sanders

Matt Bell

Sean Palmer

Brad Olsen

Jennifer Lopez

Jeff Bezos

OwlTail

The United Fire Brigades' Association wants ACC coverage for volunteer firefighters, not just for paid firefighters.There are 13 and a half thousand firefighters in New Zealand, and 11 and a half thousand of those are volunteers.ACC would cover the likes of work-related cancer claims and post-traumatic stress disorder.The association's CEO, Bill Butzbach told Kate Hawkesby a fire doesn't make a distinction between a paid or volunteer worker and neither should ACC.“There's no difference between a volunteer fire or a paid fire or road accident for that matter, so it's exactly the same work and volunteers do their fair share of that."LISTEN ABOVE

The United Fire Brigades' Association wants ACC coverage for volunteer firefighters, not just for paid firefighters. There are 13 and a half thousand firefighters in New Zealand, and 11 and a half thousand of those are volunteers. ACC would cover the likes of work-related cancer claims and post-traumatic stress disorder. The association's CEO, Bill Butzbach told Kate Hawkesby a fire doesn't make a distinction between a paid or volunteer worker and neither should ACC. “There's no difference between a volunteer fire or a paid fire or road accident for that matter, so it's exactly the same work and volunteers do their fair share of that." LISTEN ABOVE

Bill Butzbach: Calls for ACC coverage for volunteer firefighters not just paid

Volunteer firefighters save New Zealand 659 million each year.Today marks the start of National Volunteer Week, thanking the nation's more than 1100 volunteer firefighters.That figure puts New Zealand among the world's highest for unpaid firefighters.Chief Executive of the United Fire Brigades’ Association Bill Butzbach says many people may not know volunteers have the same level of training as their salaried colleagues and are equipped to deal with many different emergencies.He told Kate Hawkesby that the money is actually a conservative estimate when it comes to administration, call outs and training. Butzbach says that there are so many volunteer firefighters as that how it was when New Zealand was settled, and that career firefighters took over when urban areas built up. "It's also a function of how our population is distributed, the size of the United Kingdom but we've got the population of a small city by international standards." He says that the country does not fully understand what firefighters do. "Fire is a very small part of being a volunteer firefighter. What has increased is our medical callouts and vegetation fires."

Volunteer firefighters save New Zealand 659 million each year. Today marks the start of National Volunteer Week, thanking the nation's more than 1100 volunteer firefighters. That figure puts New Zealand among the world's highest for unpaid firefighters. Chief Executive of the United Fire Brigades’ Association Bill Butzbach says many people may not know volunteers have the same level of training as their salaried colleagues and are equipped to deal with many different emergencies. He told Kate Hawkesby that the money is actually a conservative estimate when it comes to administration, call outs and training.  Butzbach says that there are so many volunteer firefighters as that how it was when New Zealand was settled, and that career firefighters took over when urban areas built up.  "It's also a function of how our population is distributed, the size of the United Kingdom but we've got the population of a small city by international standards."  He says that the country does not fully understand what firefighters do.  "Fire is a very small part of being a volunteer firefighter. What has increased is our medical callouts and vegetation fires."

Bill Butzbach: Volunteer firefighters save taxpayers $659 million a year