It’s been widely reported, in the general and medical media, that around 600 doctors have volunteered to take part in the Federal Government’s initiative in the NT.

This doesn’t mean, however, that the doctors will be working for free.

“We have never called them volunteers,” says Kay McNiece, the chief agent of information control at the Federal Department of Health and Ageing. “There was never any suggestion they wouldn’t be paid.”

Ms McNiece refuses to say how much the doctors are getting but scoffs at an anonymous tip to Crikey suggesting the “volunteer doctors” are being paid $650 an hour. She says they are all receiving the same amount and would not be making as much as in their regular jobs.

“It’s certainly not $650 an hour,” she says.

Meanwhile, the Australian Medical Association says any confusion around whether the doctors are to be paid may have arisen from the Association’s initial call for “volunteers”.

They are called volunteers because they are being asked to put their hands up, and this isn’t meant to imply they will not to be paid, says the Association.

So that’s all sorted then… unless you ring the hotline number advertised for those with experience in health, medicine, law enforcement and teaching “who want to volunteer”. The friendly fellow at this number asks whether I am ringing to volunteer as a professional or to offer services for paid employment.

So it seems there may be two classes of volunteer: those who get paid and those who don’t.

This is not just an argument about semantics. Nor is it about begrudging payment to anyone for taking on a job which must inevitably involve some disruption to their professional and personal lives.

The point is that, like so much else about this federal foray into the NT, what is meant by the call for volunteers is as clear as mud.