Firefighter and presumptive rights campaigner Simon Lund farewelled at funeral

Australia Broadcast Center

23-05-2025

Victorian firefighter Simon Lund has been farewelled at a funeral in Gippsland today, after spending his dying days campaigning for a better deal for others like him with a terminal illness related to their work.
More than 500 people, including some of the state's top fire chiefs and local Labor MP Harriet Shing, attended the service at Churchill in Gippsland.
During the eulogy, family friend Kellie O'Callaghan described Mr Lund as "the kind of person who left a mark on every life he touched".
"He was loyal, kind, principled and loving. It wasn't just a job, it was a calling," she said.
CFA acting chief fire officer Garry Cook presented Mr Lund's wife Tracie and their three children with one of the organisation's highest accolades — a Chief's Commendation for exemplary service.
"I wish I could pick up the phone and say, 'Lundy, it's Cooky, you deserve this'," he told the service.
In her tribute, Ms Lund said her husband's legacy would live on through their efforts to change the state's presumptive rights legislation for other fire staff.
"When the Hazelwood mine fire devastated our community, we stood together," she wrote in her eulogy, read out at the funeral by Ms O'Callaghan.
Funeral attendees sobbed as Mr Lund's casket was driven away in a vintage fire truck, through a guard of honour formed by more than 100 CFA members.
Mr Lund worked at the CFA as a senior technical field officer for more than 25 years.
In his role, setting up communication gear at command centres, he attended some of the biggest fires in the state's recent history, including the toxic Hazelwood mine fire.The 56-year-old was diagnosed with stage 4 oesophageal cancer last year, which his doctor attributed to his exposure to smoke, fumes and ash from fires, including chemical fires and the mine fire.
The Firefighters' Presumptive Rights Compensation and Fire Services Legislation Amendment (Reform) Act 2019 ensures Victorian firefighters diagnosed with certain cancers are entitled to compensation.
The act includes a list of 18 cancers and an associated career period that paid and volunteer firefighters, as well as vehicle and equipment maintenance employees, must have served to qualify under the scheme.
However, professional, technical and administrative employees are not eligible — and as Mr Lund worked in an IT role, he was not covered.
Instead, he had to go back and find old pay slips and time sheets to prove 25 years' worth of exposure to risk from fires to make a successful WorkCover claim.
A week before he died on May 12, Mr Lund told the ABC the law needed to change.
Ross Sottile is a lawyer at Maurice Blackburn who worked with Mr Lund and his family to get a WorkCover claim approved.
"Presumptive legislation is beneficial legislation that makes the WorkCover claim process simpler, so what it does is it presumes that someone's work or volunteer service and their cancer condition are related," he said.
"Although [Mr Lund] had ticked off that he had the correct cancer under the presumptive legislation and he had the correct service period in terms of the years that he had spent with the CFA, the definition of firefighter just did not cover his role."
Mr Sottile said not only were workers then faced with having to prove their cancer was work-related under a WorkCover claim, but they were missing out on crucial entitlements.
"In doing that, it's a delay in workers accessing crucial entitlements to medical expenses and weekly compensation so that they can focus on things like getting treatment, instead of worrying about the financial burden of getting treatment and paying for mortgages," he said.
Mr Sottile said the current definition of firefighter under the act did not allow for the practical realities many fire staffers faced in the field.
"I think when the legislation was drafted, it just didn't take into account all these other sorts of workers that are actually on the ground alongside our firefighters," he said.
The Australian Services Union is campaigning for the legislation to be expanded to cover all professional, technical and administrative staff who attend incidents, or are exposed to contaminants.
Victorian branch secretary Tash Wark, who attended Mr Lund's funeral, said the union was also negotiating with the CFA for a better staff tracking system.
"So when exposures have occurred, there is an easy pathway back for people to be able to demonstrate what roles they have performed, when," she said.
"Simon's greatest legacy will be his fight to change presumptive laws to include his training and administration colleagues to ensure they are covered," she said.
Minister for Emergency Services Vicki Ward declined the ABC's request for an interview.
In a previous statement, a spokesperson for the Victorian government said it would "continue to monitor whether Victoria's presumptive compensation legislation appropriately reflects the increased risks some emergency service workers can face due to their service".