knew the missing person<\/a> quite well.<\/p>\nScott said he was advised not to attend, but he insisted.<\/p>\n
“I wasn’t forced to go, I wasn’t asked to go, I was told not to, and I still went against that.”<\/p>\n
Why? The reason he volunteered in the first place.<\/p>\n
“On the hope that he was okay and, you know, we could help him.”<\/p>\n
The team could not help him, and Scott assisted in body recovery.<\/p>\n
![\"Emergency](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4KBF5OP_Jarrad_jpeg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nEmergency volunteer Jarrad Scott.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
It was after this that Scott began to struggle. He admits some of this was his responsibility because he ignored LandSAR advice and went to the scene anyway.<\/p>\n
LandSAR provided Employee Assistance Program (EAP) assistance, in person counselling and debriefs, before he was told to go to a GP.<\/p>\n
The doctor tried to arrange psychologist treatment and filed an ACC claim – only for it to be turned down.<\/p>\n
“I got a phone call from ACC and the lady said, really sorry to tell you, we know you’ve been through a horrible thing, but you’re not covered and your claim’s going to be declined … because I am a volunteer.<\/p>\n
“I asked them … what about the guy standing next to me in the blue uniform doing the same job at the same time, same scene. Is he covered?<\/p>\n
“And she said yes, because he’s being paid.”<\/p>\n
At this point, Scott said his mental health was getting worse by the day.<\/p>\n
“The constant flashbacks and daymares, I call them, it’s like a nightmare, but during the day, it’s just … insane.”<\/p>\n
Because of his volunteer status, not only was he declined ACC care, but also salary compensation.<\/p>\n
Eventually Scott was diagnosed with PTSD and LandSAR was able to fund specialist treatment EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing) which helped dramatically.<\/p>\n
He said LandSAR had done everything it could to support him, but the legislation continued to hurt.<\/p>\n
“It’s too late really to help me, but I want people going forward to be covered.<\/p>\n
“The system’s so flawed that you’ve got a whole nation that runs on volunteers, and none of us are covered. St John’s and Fire, Coast Guard, but none of them are covered, and they all see horrific stuff.”<\/p>\n
Rescuing their own<\/p>\n
LandSAR chief executive Wendy Wright agreed the legislation fell short.<\/p>\n
![\"LandSAR](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JSMN6N_Wendy_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nLandSAR chief executive Wendy Wright.
\nPhoto: Supplied\n<\/p>\n
“When we look at the reliance we have as a country on volunteers across emergency services and search and rescue, 95 percent search and rescue workforce are actually volunteers.<\/p>\n
“They do it because they want to serve their community.”<\/p>\n
And that was part of the pressure.<\/p>\n
“When you have in a situation like you do at Mount Manganui, that is the local Tauranga volunteers and they’re … supporting their own community.”<\/p>\n
She said sometimes it was the cumulative effect that created a mental injury. Other times, just one event like the Mauau landslide would be enough.<\/p>\n
The cost of volunteering<\/p>\n
Peter Ottley was also familiar with this battle. He did not know if he would ever be able to return to work again.<\/p>\n
His wife worked two jobs to keep them afloat.<\/p>\n
Ottley was a volunteer fire fighter in Kingston for 13 years, but in December 2024 his life changed after attending a bus crash.<\/p>\n
“I turned the world a little bit upside down and lost the plot.”<\/p>\n
It was PTSD. He became incredibly angry, irritable, and anxious.<\/p>\n
“Didn’t want to be around people … my anxiety was going through the roof.”<\/p>\n
Like Scott, Ottley’s PTSD was not from one event but built from 13 years serving the community.<\/p>\n
Fire and Emergency New Zealand (FENZ) said crew safety was a top priority and it provided comprehensive support, including free counselling and psychological support.<\/p>\n
He said FENZ was doing what it could and funding EMDR sessions, but it did not have a system for people like him.<\/p>\n
Government sympathetic, but doesn’t want change<\/p>\n
Parliament has shown little interest in making changes to the system, despite the fact volunteers made up 86 percent of the front-line workforce of Fire and Emergency.<\/p>\n
In late 2025 Parliament agreed volunteer firefighters offered vital services to New Zealand, but it did not want to change the legislation over fears of setting a precedent.<\/p>\n
“We do not consider it practical for all types of volunteers to be provided with ACC workplace coverage.”<\/p>\n
It said the estimated cost of providing equitable cover for FENZ volunteers at $244,533 per year, or roughly $20 per volunteer firefighter annually.<\/p>\n
The Minister for ACC, Scott Simpson, said his focus was on ensuring the scheme was sustainable for future generations, not expanding.<\/p>\n
![\"Camilla](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4M5QM9V_copyright_image_272342.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
\nLabour’s ACC spokesperson Camilla Belich.
\nPhoto: \u00a9VNP \/ Phil Smith\n<\/p>\n
Labour’s ACC spokesperson Camilla Belich had a different view.<\/p>\n
The party was so compelled by the examples in last year’s petition it created a Members Bill asking for volunteer firefighters to have the same cover as their paid counterparts.<\/p>\n
“We haven’t been approached by other occupations to date, but we’ll be happy to consider those alongside this change if necessary.”<\/p>\n
She said Labour would have a full ACC policy going into the election.<\/p>\n
Volunteers a ticking time bomb<\/p>\n
Both Scott and Ottley knew they were not the only ones.<\/p>\n
“I’ve got no doubt that there’s volunteers out there that have been suffering through PTSD, potentially taking their own lives, but there’s just no need for it,” Scott said.<\/p>\n
Around 25 Fire and Emergency volunteer firefighters responded to the Mount Maunganui landslide.<\/p>\n
“You don’t get a choice of where you go or what you’ve got to do. We [volunteers] go and do what we have to do, we’re more often than not there well before the full [paid] people … sometimes it’s at least an hour to two hours before anyone else comes to help or support us … and the volleys pretty much are out straight away, bang,” said Ottley.<\/p>\n
Ottley said it was unbelievable volunteers could get paid time off for a broken leg, but their minds were not valued the same.<\/p>\n
“It should be automatic that, if someone needs help or whatever it is that, it’s done … but money is more important than life.”<\/p>\n
He said emergency volunteers were a ticking time bomb, seeing trauma after trauma, waiting to go off.<\/p>\n
Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emergency volunteer Peter Ottley. Photo: Supplied Volunteer firefighter Peter Ottley still remembers his world turning upside down. Two…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":317122,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[643,2158,103,61,60,410,411,43,2159,2157,2155,2156],"class_list":["post-317121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-health","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=317121"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/317121\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/317122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=317121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=317121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=317121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Emergency](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JSMCPH_Emergency_volunteer_Peter_Ottley__16x10_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Earlier](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/4JU60HD_Mt_Maunganui_recovery_search_3_jpg.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n