Page 2113 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 21 June 2005
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assists the long-term security of the funds, as the ACT Public Trustee is publicly accountable, and its functions are as perpetual as we can make them in a public institution. One measure of a society is the way it respects its dead. This legislation provides, as far as possible, for perpetuity and it therefore provides a base for ongoing remembrance.
MR HARGREAVES (Brindabella—Minister for Disability, Housing and Community Services, Minister for Urban Services and Minister for Police and Emergency Services) (4.47), in reply: As members would be aware, this bill provides for the establishment of a perpetual care trust for cemeteries and crematoria, as has been indicated. The trust will be used to ensure the ongoing maintenance of the cemeteries and crematoria. I will be responsible for ensuring that there are sufficient funds in the trust to provide maintenance, both now and into the future. The perpetual care trust percentage applies to the total amount of money collected for each burial, interment of ashes, and for memorials at a cemetery or crematorium.
The bill provides for the Public Trustee, who has extensive experience in managing trusts, to be the trustee of the perpetual care trust. This will enable the funds to be pooled, and to be invested in a diverse portfolio of investments. The bill will also guarantee maintenance in perpetuity now and in the future—that sounds a bit tautological—even if the cemetery or crematorium closes, as Dr Foskey said.
For the benefit of Mr Pratt, in terms of profits, we are talking about an amount of money put into the trust; it is not the totality of the profit a crematorium might make. The answer is that whatever profits the company makes must be net of the payments it puts into the reserve, for acquisition of further land, for example. That is quite possible. I think one of the issues you were concerned about was protection of the funds. There are a couple of protections within the act. Section 16 says that an amount forming part of the reserve of a perpetual care trust is not available for any payment without prior approval of the minister. In other words, it cannot happen. It also says that there are penalties.
Section 15 (1) says that the operator of a cemetery or crematorium commits an offence if the operator applies an amount in the perpetual care trust for a purpose other than the purpose for which the trust is established. Where we are talking about that reserve, any application of funds other than for the maintenance of that particular area is an offence and carries with it 50 penalty points. There are other offences, and I refer the member to clause 16A. The other thing is that the operator of a cemetery or crematorium commits an offence, in accordance with 16B, if the operator fails to have the accounts and records mentioned in 16A audited by a person who is a registered company auditor within the meaning of the Corporations Act, which carries another 50 penalty points.
From the financial aspect there are a lot of penalties applied if those offences are committed, but the overarching protection is that the moneys must go into the Public Trustee, and the Public Trustee is therefore accountable to the people. Whilst I do not share Mr Pratt’s concerns, I understand them and I think the act addresses them. Certainly we will be able to look at them further down the track if anything emerges. If members get a smell of something going wrong I invite them to alert me to that fact and I will do something about it pretty smartly. I take the point Dr Foskey made—and I think it is the most important one of all—that the measure of our society is how we treat those who have left our company. I thank members for their support for the bill.
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