Page 4773 - Week 13 - Thursday, 28 November 2019
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Early in the engagement process the survey results indicated that we have a problem in meeting the needs of some Canberrans. More than one in 10 people who have religious or cultural needs in relation to burial or cremation say their needs are not currently being met.
To find out more about this we had detailed conversations with religious groups and multicultural communities, including the ACT Multicultural Advisory Council and the Canberra Interfaith Forum. We met with the Chairperson of the Hindu Council of Australia and members of the Sikh, Jain, Buddhist, Hindu, Jewish, Islamic, Sukyo Mahikari and Brahma Kumari communities.
The bill requires that operators consider religious and cultural needs when establishing and operating a facility and it makes it an offence for an operator to refuse a reasonable request made on religious or cultural grounds. The objects of the act will also reflect this with a key object being to respect the diverse burial, cremation and interment practices, cultural practices and religious beliefs of people in our city.
We want to ensure that the diverse needs of Canberrans now and into the future are met when it comes to burial, cremation and similar services. At the moment, some families have to travel to Sydney for funeral and cremation services. This is unacceptable in a socially inclusive society, and it is the reason that I am bringing these laws forward on behalf of the government today.
In 2017 members may recall that the Standing Committee on Environment and Transport and City Services undertook an inquiry into the management of cemeteries in the ACT. This inquiry made a number of recommendations that the government agreed to and has taken seriously. A number of recommendations from the inquiry related to crematorium facilities in the ACT, including a recommendation that the government consider the development of a second crematorium and that it be operated by the Public Cemeteries Authority. I was pleased to announce last month our intention to build a public crematorium operated by the cemeteries authority, whose role under the bill has been strengthened.
Another recommendation from the 2017 inquiry was that the government review the Cemeteries and Crematoria Act to ascertain the feasibility and financial basis for introducing a renewable tenure scheme in the ACT. Such a scheme would mean that when a person purchases a burial or interment site they would have the option of keeping the site forever or for a limited time.
We looked closely at this during the review process and put this question to the community in our comprehensive engagement process. The overwhelming feedback from the community was that such a scheme is not supported in the ACT, with around 60 per cent of survey respondents being opposed or strongly opposed to the idea. Based on this we have chosen not to introduce renewable tenure at this time. Instead, this government is focusing on meeting the needs of the community through other means, including the recent announcement of a publicly operated crematorium and pursuing development options for a memorial park in the south of Canberra.
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