Fires aren't an excuse for a compo free-for-all If we pay compensation for everyone who loses power or can't get home, who in this country won't have a hand out? Labor should stop whingeing that the purse strings are prudently tightened a little after its wild largesse: The federal government has tightened the eligibility requirements for bushfire victims to receive recovery funds in a move Labor has described as ""heartless"" and ""an absolute nonsense"." People who have been cut off from their homes or who have no electricity have not been deemed eligible in the first round of disaster payments determined by Justice Minister Michael Keenan... The scheme, which has existed in its current form since 2007, provides eligible adults with $1000 each and eligible children with $400. So far, for the NSW bushfires, the money will go to people who have lost or had their homes significantly damaged, to those who have been seriously injured, or who have had an immediate family member killed. But shadow attorney-general Mark Dreyfus has questioned why the Coalition has not included those who are cut off from their homes, despite there being a history of Labor including the group in the disaster payments. Widening the payments as Labor did compensates people who may have suffered no financial loss at all, raises the risk of fraud and costs a fortune to administer.