Victorian firefighters are pushing to expand the number of cancers covered in the state’s presumptive cancer scheme, declaring the government's proposed reforms fall short.
The Victorian Greens on Wednesday introduced a bill to expand the scheme to include nine additional cancers, bringing the total number covered to 20.
Presumptive rights mean that career and volunteer firefighters diagnosed with certain cancers do not need to prove firefighting caused their disease.
State party leader Samantha Ratnam stood with United Firefighters Union secretary Peter Marshall on the front steps of parliament to call on all state MPs to back the bill.
Flanked by dozens of firefighters, Mr Marshall said it would bring the state in line with national legislation and it was critical MPs take a non-partisan approach to the issue.
"It's an issue that affects each one of these people," he told reporters.
'Every time they enter a burning building they're actually exposed to up to 8000 different carcinogens and different toxins.
"As a result of that, they need protection to make sure that when they succumb to an illness, occupational cancer, that they're actually protected."
The bill would expand the scheme to include lung, skin, cervical, ovarian, uterine, penile, pancreatic, malignant mesothelioma and thyroid cancers.
As a private members bill, it cannot become law without passing Victoria's Labor-majority lower house.
Mr Marshall, who has repeatedly butted heads with the government, noted the Greens' legislation built on changes flagged by the government earlier this year.
In June, emergency services minister Jaclyn Symes announced the state's presumptive scheme would be expanded to cover firefighters diagnosed with female-specific forms of cancer.
At the time, the union leader accused the state government of selling out his members by adding three cancers to the scheme instead of eight, leaving the state out of step with the federal laws.
Ms Symes said the government had consulted widely on its gender-specific reforms but the Greens had not discussed their bill with her.
"Any further expansion in relation to adding cancers will indeed have to go through a similar process of consultation (and) evidence-based analysis," she said.
"That work hasn't been done in relation to the cancers that I understand the Greens political party will introduce to the bill."
The Greens argued the government's legislation, which is yet to be introduced to parliament, would not go far enough.
"The reforms that they've outlined so far would mean that a Victorian firefighter working in Tullamarine would not have the same rights and protections as their colleagues working down the road at Melbourne Airport," Ms Ratnam said.
