Volunteering is about mateship, about mucking in and helping people who need it most. It's about putting community ahead of the individual; giving your own time for the greater good.

And nowhere could the spirit of volunteering be more clearly demonstrated than in the selfless actions of the thousands of volunteer firefighters who have spent the past couple of months battling bushfires across much of eastern Australia.

These men and women have left behind their jobs and, in many cases, left behind their families to charge into the fire zone.

Australia prides itself on having the best-trained volunteer firefighting force in the world but, as we've tragically seen with these fires, nothing can guarantee their safety.

Now, with summer just one month old and no end in sight for the bushfire season, questions are being asked about whether we should be seeking to compensate our volunteers for their work.

And it is hard to see why not.

Even though NSW Rural Fire Service commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons has rejected the call for compensation for his firefighters, saying it would undermine the spirit of volunteerism underpinning the RFS, governments owe it to all of us to continue investigating what can be done.

And even though Mr Fitzsimmons says it is the volunteers themselves who are telling him they do not seek compensation, this should not be their decision to make.

Bushfire seasons only seem to be getting longer and more intense in this country, putting more pressure on resources than ever before. And the danger is that we will reach a point where the volunteers can simply no longer do the job.

We're told that crews are already approaching the point of exhaustion this year and we don't know how many more fires there will be to fight.

And we don't know for sure that next summer won't be even worse than this one.

No workforce can exist forever on good wishes alone.

RFS volunteers should not see talk of compensation as a threat to the spirit of volunteering; rather, they should see it as the community's ultimate vote of thanks.

We will never forget what thousands of volunteers firefighters have done for this country over so many year, but nor can we continue taking their sacrifice for granted.

I AM on annual leave for the next three weeks so you won't be hearing from me on Sunday morning.

Thank you for your support of local journalism and please a happy new year.