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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 10 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 3346 ..
MR HARGREAVES (continuing):
It did not accept the recommendation to limit post-burial tenure to public cemeteries. In other words, private cemeteries will be free to offer a variety of services that reflect market demand. This bill removes the understanding we have that once we go in the ground at a cemetery at Gungahlin or Phillip that plot is there in perpetuity. It says on page 1 of the explanatory memorandum that the government did not accept the recommendation to limit post-burial tenure. It is an either/or situation.
The real issue is that this bill opens up the possibility for privately run cemeteries. Members may not know, but Gungahlin, Woden and Hall cemeteries are publicly owned cemeteries, and the Tharwa Cemetery is on private land. Because Tharwa Cemetery is on private land, unless you are a pioneer of the Tharwa area you cannot be buried there.
Val Jeffery, known to many members here, is the store operator at Tharwa. He has been connected with the pioneering families in the Tharwa area for over 60 years, maybe more. When he dies, his family will not be allowed to bury him in the Tharwa Cemetery. Mr Jeffery is known to some members of my former family who were also pioneers in this district. It is sad that a person who has contributed so much to the Tharwa community cannot be buried there when he dies.
Members may not know that the crematorium was private until 1966, when the Cremation Act was brought in.
I have a fundamental problem with allowing for something as final as death to be run by the private sector.
This bill sets up the cemeteries trust as a board that will operate on a commercial basis. The board will need to make a profit or at least cover its costs. Otherwise it will be sold off. To make a profit, the board will have to increase prices. Lord knows, Mr Speaker, it is difficult enough for people to pay for funerals as it is.
The board will have a controlling interest. It says quite clearly in this bill that if a company does not maintain a cemetery the board will be able to pass a grave on to somebody else for maintenance.
Mr Hird: It is certainly not a dead issue.
MR HARGREAVES: Mr Hird makes light of the bill. I too would like to make light of it, but I will not. I do not think it is appropriate.
The bill talks about a code of practice, but that code of practice will not be available until after the legislation is passed. We do not have a broad idea of what is proposed in that code of practice. No-one has been able to tell me. It is a bit like home detention. We were promised a set of draft drafting instructions for the regulations. They have not surfaced. That is why we have a difficulty with it.
National competition policy is going to the extreme. Cemeteries are not about commercial operations; they are not about commercial monopolies. Even the Prime Minister acknowledges that this is taking things a little bit too far.
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