Asked about concerns over how long the tens of thousands of volunteer firefighters were expected to continue without pay, Mr Morrison said they "want to be there".

"These fires have been going on for some months now and when I was speaking with the commissioner on the weekend out where we have the megafire at the moment we were talking through the crew rotations," the prime minister said.

"And the fact is these crews, yes, they're tired, but they also want to be out there defending their communities. And so we do all we can to rotate the shifts to give them those breaks but ... in many cases you've got to hold them back to make sure they get that rest. And I thank them all for what they're doing, particularly all those who support them."

Wauchope Rural Fire Service captain Donna Anthony described the comments as "poorly worded".

"I wouldn't say that we want to be out there," she said diplomatically. "But if we are not out there who else is going to do it?

Mrs Anthony said while she doesn't expect to get paid there could be some financial incentives such as "tax breaks" offered to firefighters.

"We have signed up as a volunteer and that is what volunteering is about," she said.

"But if they could work out some tax breaks when it is busy as it is because a lot of people are taking time off work."

She also called on the government to provide "more resources" for firefighters.

"We need appliances, vehicles and the equipment to do the job," she said.

"The problem in our district is that it has just gone on for so long,

"The Lindfield Park Fire started on July 17 and it is still going.

"That is almost 150 days on one particular fire and because everything is so dry, it is like a tinder box, one little lightening strike like what happened the other night and we have a fire on our hands."

She said the brigade always needed more volunteers.

"They say there is 70,000 volunteers but of those 70,000 how many are active firefighters?" she asked.

"We have received at least eight members that we are putting through training which is encouraging."

Rollands Plains RFS captain Rod Innes said the government needed to do more to address bureaucracy around hazard reduction burns.

"Ten to 15 years ago we could go to a property owner, 'do you need a hand to do your hazard reduction?', now we are very hamstrung by paper work and bureaucracy," he said.

"By the time you get your paperwork from some guy who is sitting in an office who gives the authority you have lost the weather window that you knew you had."

Mr Innes conceded policy around hazard reduction burns falls to the state government but said the federal government needed to show leadership on the issue.

"You are going up tier after tier of bureaucracy, making something 99 per cent of the population can do by working as a community," he said.

"While it is a state government issue federal politicians should be saying if you are not going to step up and manage this then we will.

"The bushfires have really been unprecedented because we haven't been able to get the reductions of fuel, it has nothing to do with the climate."

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