Page 3094 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 10 September 1991
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The Cemeteries Trust is actually a quite substantial organisation; it controls the public cemeteries here in the ACT, which, of course, are at Gungahlin and Woden. Many people are not aware that there are also other cemeteries in the ACT that are public, namely, Hall and Tharwa. There is even a cemetery at Weetangera, which I never knew existed, actually, until I was in the Minister's chair. I was quite surprised to find out that there was a cemetery at Weetangera which is open to the public and which falls under the administration of the trust.
While we are talking about the Cemeteries Trust - and I suppose it is not all that often that the matter will come before the Assembly - I would like to stress to the Minister the requirement that there be quite a number of other private cemetery plots within the ACT such as those which are currently administered by private trustee organisations. To my way of thinking, it is sensible to have those particular cemeteries, some of which have considerable historical significance.
For example, the grave of Farrer, the founder of our wheat industry, is currently in the hands, I believe, of a private organisation. In any case, it does not fall under the control of the trust, and I think it logically should, for the purposes of preservation. There are cemeteries also at many properties around here. The cemetery at Lanyon is one that springs to mind as having great bearing on the history of the district; and, of course, there are other properties around the ACT where people have been buried virtually since the first influx of white settlers to the limestone plains.
I think all members of the Assembly will join me in endorsing this Bill and in noting that it initiates, in effect, a small micro-economic reform, and one which is long overdue.
MR JENSEN (8.28): Mr Speaker, while acknowledging the need to move towards a reduction in the subsidisation of the trust's activities, there is one related matter, concerning a group living in the ACT, which I want to make some comments about tonight. Prior to the change in government, I commenced a process of consultation with a group in the ACT in my role as a member of the Alliance Government with some responsibilities for heritage matters.
Mrs Grassby: What were you doing - selling funeral plots?
MR JENSEN: If you will allow me to continue, Mrs Grassby, you will find out the story. As someone who expresses an interest in this subject, I am sure that you will be very interested in what I have to say. I am sure also that any remarks I make this evening will be noted, not only by the Minister for Urban Services but also by his colleague the Minister for the Environment, Land and Planning.
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